Reyes to buy 6 Coca-Cola production plants

Food and beverage distributor Reyes Holdings said Wednesday it intends to buy six production plants from The Coca-Cola Co., including ones in Alsip and Niles.

The deal will be the first foray into bottling by Great Lakes Coca-Cola Distribution LLC, which is owned by Rosemont-based Reyes Holdings. The other plants are in Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan.; Eagan, Minnesota; and Milwaukee.

“The agreement allows Reyes Holdings and our family of businesses not only to grow our partnership with Coca-Cola, but also to become a producing bottler for the first time,” Chris Reyes, founder and co-chairman of Reyes Holdings, said in a news release.

Great Lakes Coca-Cola said it expects to complete the purchase in stages by the end of 2017. Financial terms weren’t released.

The company acquired the Chicago-area distribution rights for Coca-Cola in 2014 and last fall announced an expansion that eventually will include Michigan, most of Wisconsin, and parts of southern Minnesota, northeast Iowa and northern Illinois.

Reyes Holdings’s beverage group is a large beer distributor, working with MillerCoors as well as many craft beers.