– 1956 –
Harrison Beverage Company History
Harrison Beverage is a family owned company, founded by our CEO and President’s Grandfather, Harry Harrison in 1956. Harry owned a trucking company and took a risk by buying a bankrupt beer distribution facility. The first warehouse was located in Atlantic City at 261 N. Delaware Avenue. Unfortunately, Harry passed away before the business found success.
Luckily, Harry’s family was persistent in his vision and when he passed his brother-in-law, Leonard Hollander, took over as President, creating success in running the distribution facility. In 1958 Leonard added Vineland Territory and a Vineland warehouse, as well as, a warehouse location in Wildwood. The main brands at the time were Anheuser-Busch, Ortliebs, Rheingold, Knickerbocker, and Mt. Valley Water. In 1970 Mr. Hollander decided to consolidate the 3 warehouses into one location at 1601 Delilah Rd, Pleasantville, NJ. 10 years later, in 1980, Harrison Beverage Company built the current warehouse, which is right next door to the old warehouse at 6812 Delilah Rd.
Leonard Hollander retired in 1995, at which time he handed over the business to Harry’s son, Larry Harrison. Larry ran the business until he retired in December 2006. Mr. Harrison then sold the company to his son Dean Harrison (CEO) and his daughter Brett Matik (President).
Harrison Beverage Company currently employs 80 full time team members in the off season and over 100 full time and part time employees in the summer months. Collectively the Harrison Sales Team has over 80 years of Sales Management experience, and over 100 years of Field Sales experience amongst a sales force of 14 team members. Our knowledgeable Sales Team members are certified Cicerone and our Draft Technicians are Micromatic trained. Harrison Beverage services over 700 retailers in 5 counties and supplies over 1,200 brands.
Together our team continues to develop Harry Harrison’s vision from 1956, when he took that risk on a bankrupt company because he saw a potential that could change everything, and it did.
