John P. O'Sullivan Distributing, Inc.

Name: John P. O'Sullivan Distributing, Inc.
Address: 9300 Enterprise Way, Holly, MI, 48442, US
Telephone: +18107337090

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John P. O'Sullivan Distributing, Inc.

John P. Clair counties.

O’Sullivan Distributing is the premiere beverage distributor for Genesee, Shiawassee, Lapeer, Bay, Saginaw, Midland, Gratiot, Tuscola, Sanilac, Huron and St.

08/28/2026

2007: The Oak Distributing Acquisition

In May 2007, we made one of our biggest moves yet when we bought out Oak Distributing in Flint.

Overnight our portfolio of brands we distribute added the rights to distribute Coors, Pabst, Samuel Adams, Mike's Hard Lemonade, and several other brands across Genesee, Lapeer, and Shiawassee counties.

It shifted our portfolio from a small group of highly focused brands to one that included craft beers, economy brands, several imports, and set us up for years of sustained growth.

Story #16 of 50.

08/25/2026

Bill Coors wanted his distributors to handle his beer properly. His strict quality standards became the MolsonCoors Quality365 Audit — one of the most rigorous evaluations in beverage distribution.

Every month, our sales managers are out in the field conducting unannounced quality checks at accounts across all 11 counties we serve — checking rotation dates, product condition, and display standards. No shortcuts. No exceptions.

The result? John P. O'Sullivan Distributing has received a 100% Quality Achievement Award from MolsonCoors — twice — once in 2022 and again this year in 2026.

The copper plaque is proudly displayed in our company board room. The audit sheets in our managers' hands. The cases meticulously date rotated from the moment they land on our warehouse floor. This is what quality looks like from the inside.

Bill Coors set the standard. Our job is to uphold it.

Story #15 of 50.

08/21/2026

You can buy a beverage in seconds — but there’s an entire system working behind that moment that most people never see.

We were honored to sit down with the Michigan Liquor Control Commission’s MLCC On The Road podcast, recorded live at the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association convention in Traverse City, to pull back the curtain on exactly how that system works.

In this episode, Joanie O’Sullivan-Butler — our President & CEO — joins MB&WWA President Spencer Nevins to cover:

🍺 How JPO Sullivan grew from 2 counties and 2 brands in 1976 to 11 counties and 140 employees today

📦 What distributors actually do — the part you never see — from the moment product enters Michigan to the moment it hits the shelf

🏭 The story behind our new warehouse and what that move meant for our team

🥤 Where the industry is headed: RTDs, non-alcoholic beverages, and wellness drinks

👩‍💼 What it means to lead a family business at 50 years — and the growth of women in leadership across the industry

⚖️ Why Michigan’s three-tier system and franchise laws protect consumers, create competition, and keep the market fair

🤝 How distributors — all 42 of Michigan’s local, family-owned wholesalers — are woven into the fabric of their communities

Link to the full episode below.

Story #14 of 50.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2431965/episodes/19648198

08/18/2026

What It Takes to Run 25 Routes

Every morning, 25 trucks roll out across mid-Michigan and the Thumb. Each driver knows their route, their accounts, their customers by name.

It's logistics. It's relationships. It's 50 years of trust built one delivery at a time.

Story #13 of 50.

08/14/2026

For nearly 50 years, Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc was home to one of the PGA Tour's most beloved stops — the Buick Open. From 1958 to 2009, the tournament brought the world's greatest golfers to our backyard, with legends like Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Fred Couples, and Ben Crenshaw all hoisting the trophy. The famous par-3 17th hole became one of the rowdiest in professional golf, and the event raised nearly $8 million for southeastern Michigan charities over its run. When GM ended its sponsorship in 2009, a piece of Genesee County's identity went with it.

In 2018, professional golf came home.

The Ally Challenge presented by McLaren brought PGA TOUR Champions competition back to Warwick Hills — and we've been proud sponsors from day one. Since its inaugural playing, the Ally Challenge has donated more than $9.6 million to charitable organizations across southeastern Michigan, supporting the United Way of Genesee County, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Flint, First Tee of Eastern Michigan, and dozens more. In 2024 alone, the tournament surpassed $1 million in charitable giving for the fifth time.

For a company built in Genesee County, supporting an event that gives back to Genesee County — and honors the golf tradition this community loves — isn't a sponsorship decision. It's the only decision.

We'll see you at Warwick Hills, August 27-30, 2026. 🏌️⛳

Story #12 of 50.

08/11/2026

These pictures tell a story about a side of Michigan’s beer distributors that most people don’t realize exists.

We’ve already covered how Bill Coors launched the first large-scale can recycling program in the United States. But Michigan went one step further — in 1978, our state became the first to adopt a 10-cent bottle deposit law, and for decades Michigan led the nation with redemption rates topping 95%.

What most people don’t see is what happens after you return your cans and bottles at the store. These photos show the back room of our warehouse — where those containers come back from retailers, get sorted, and wind up being processed into the recycling stream through our partnerships with Schupan Recycling, Glass Recyclers, and Revolution Sustainable Materials.

In 2025, that system produced some impressive results within JPO:

🥫 1.28M lbs of aluminum recycled
🍶 2.79M lbs of glass recycled
📦 35,000+ lbs of cardboard recycled
🧴 15,000+ lbs of plastic film recycled
♻️ 4.1M+ lbs of total material kept out of landfills
🌿 6,300+ metric tons of CO₂ avoided
⚡ 10 million kWh of energy saved
🚗 Equivalent to taking ~1,370 cars off the road for a year
🏠 Equivalent to powering ~800 homes for a full year

But there’s still more we can all do. Michigan’s bottle redemption rate has slipped from over 90% to just 70.4% in 2024 — a 35-year low. Every unreturned can or bottle is value left on the table and material that doesn’t make it back into the recycling stream.

Take ’em back. 🍺♻️

Story #11 of 50.

08/07/2026

In 1957, Bill Coors had a problem. Beer cans were made of steel — they tasted metallic, they rusted, and they littered highways across America. Environmental activists were calling to ban the can entirely.

Bill had a different idea.

He spent five years and nearly $10 million developing something nobody in the industry wanted: a seamless, two-piece aluminum can that was 100% recyclable. The steel can industry laughed. His own United States Brewers Association opposed him. Longtime friends in the beer and soda industries cut him off.

On January 22, 1959, Coors debuted the world's first aluminum beverage can — a 7-ounce container filled with Original Coors.

Then he went further. When there was no recycling system to return the cans, he built one. Coors launched "Cash for Cans" — paying consumers a penny per can returned, regardless of brand. He dragged his own distributors into the recycling business. He spent 20 years convincing a reluctant industry to follow him.

At the 50th anniversary of the aluminum can in 2009, Bill Coors reflected: "Nobody wanted it. Brewers didn't want it. Can manufacturers didn't want it. Nobody wanted it — but consumer demand drove this incredible conversion."

Today, 152 million aluminum cans are recycled every single day in the United States. The aluminum can remains the most recycled item in America — infinitely recyclable, back on a shelf in as few as 30 days.

Bill Coors passed away in 2018 at age 102. His legacy is in every can we deliver — and every can we recycle.

Story #10 of 50.

08/04/2026

Once upon a time, there was a niche imported beer brand searching for a distributor in the Flint market. When he was told he could just buy a pallet of beer and see how it sold that summer, John O’Sullivan took a chance on it.

You've probably heard of it now. 😎🍺

9 of 50

07/31/2026

In 1995, Michael Sullivan sold his share of the partnership to John after nearly two decades of partnership. The company was renamed John P. O'Sullivan Distributing, Inc., and John stepped fully into the role of President — a title he held for 20 more years.

A name change. A new identity. The same relentless commitment to excellence.

Story #8 of 50.

07/28/2026

In 1981, Flint, Michigan had the highest unemployment rate in the United States.

A nun named Sister Claudia, director of Catholic Outreach on Garland Street, was making sandwiches for the hungry and knew she couldn’t keep up with the need on her own. So she came to Sullivan & O’Sullivan Distributing for help.

John O’Sullivan and Michael Sullivan said yes immediately.

In September 1981, the Genesee Food Bank opened inside their warehouse. Sullivan and O’Sullivan donated the office space, the warehouse space, a refrigerated truck for frozen foods, fork-lift trucks, docks, and the manpower to unload every shipment.

Michael Sullivan became president of the board. Both men served on the original planning committee and the Board of Directors.

Within months, 151,000 pounds of food had been distributed across Flint, Saginaw, Owosso, and Lapeer. Within five years: 1.5 million pounds. 100+ agencies. 50,000 people fed every month.

That organization — born in a beer distributor’s warehouse because a nun asked and two businessmen said yes — became the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.

Today it serves 417 hunger-relief organizations across 22 counties, impacts more than 331,500 people every year, and distributed nearly 40 million pounds of food in 2024 alone.

In 1986, Executive Director Kim Yecke wrote a letter about what John and Mike had done. The last line reads: “There are much easier ways to contribute to making our community a better place to live…but the easy way out was not the approach of John O’Sullivan and Michael Sullivan.”

We still have that letter. We still have the article. And we’re still proud of what they started.

Story #7 of 50.

Address

9300 Enterprise Way
Holly, MI
48442

Telephone

+18107337090

Website

http://www.jposullivan.com/

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