Page 84 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2026

Jeff Bertucci, Matthew Hessell and Ryland Bertucci behind the Encompass Pick Line
For nearly a century, F.E.B. Distributing Company Inc. has been known for delivering beer across South Mississippi, but the Bertucci family feels the company’s story has become about much more than beer.
Walk through the Gulfport warehouse and you’ll find an operation that looks very different from the one founder Salvador Bertucci built. But ask company leaders Jeff Bertucci, Ryland Bertucci, and Matthew Hessell what they’re most proud of, and none of them mention equipment or technology advances first. They talk about the people.
“None of that replaces relationships,” Jeff Bertucci said. “At the end of the day, it’s still a people business.”
That philosophy has guided F.E.B. Distributing through decades of family ownership.
Jeff Bertucci, his brother, Ryland Bertucci, and their cousin, Matthew Hessell, represent the company’s fourth generation of leadership. The Bertucci brothers learned the business from the ground up, pushing brooms, organizing warehouses, and
working summer jobs at 13 years old. Hessell took a different path, spending five years in the casino industry before returning to the family business, where he now leads its technological evolution.
Their own children are following that same path, learning the business from the ground up. “It’s the only way we know,” Jeff Bertucci said. “If they decide this is what they want to do, we want them to understand every job.”
That respect extends well beyond family. F.E.B. Distributing employs about 115 people on the Gulf Coast, with another 145 at its sister company, Capital City Beverages, in Jackson. Many employees have spent decades with the company, including several approaching 30 years of service.
“We’re only here because of the people who came before us,” Ryland Bertucci said. “And I don’t just mean our family, but every employee who helped build this company.”
While the company’s foundation has remained unchanged, the industry around it has transformed dramatically. “It’s not our
84 | August 2026
www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living
BREWING A LEGACY
The Bertucci Family’s 92-Year story by Cherie Ward
Tradition of Family, Innovation, and Community
photos by Madeline Romano and courtesy of F.E.B.