Page 38 - South Mississippi Living - March, 2019

PEOPLE beers for years
F.E.B. DISTRIBUTING
Celebrates 85 Years and Four Generations
story by Jeff Clark photos courtesy of F.E.B. Distributing
Frank Bertucci, president of F.E.B. Distributing, said his grandfather, Salvador J. Bertucci, started the family-owned malt beverage distribution business at the end of prohibition. “We like to say we’ve been selling beer legally since 1934,” Bertucci said with a laugh. “My grandfather was actually the first person in Mississippi to get a permit to sell beer at the end of prohibition. He owned a restaurant in downtown Gulfport at that time called the Splendid Café.”
38 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • March 2019
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Salvador Bertucci started the business
in a building on 29th Avenue in Gulfport with a beer permit and one beer — Jax, which was brewed down the road in New Orleans. On March 27, F.E.B. Distributing will celebrate 85 years of business on
the Coast. Since 2000, the distributing company has been located in its current home at 12155 Intraplex Parkway in Gulfport. The single beer has grown to more than 100 different adult beverages and the customer base is more than 1,000. But F.E.B. Distributing is still all about the family.
“I’m the fourth generation in the business,” Ryland Bertucci said. “I run the sales department. “My brother, Jeff runs the operations. Our first cousin, Matthew Hessell, manages all of the
technology. My uncle, Paul is the executive vice president and my dad is
Frank E. Bertucci with Salvador J. Bertucci in 1955 overseeing the loading of JAX beer.
In the 1960s, F.E.B. Distributing Company was appointed the exclusive distributor for the Miller Brewing Company, as well as acquired imported Heineken for the Mississippi Gulf Coast.