J. Christopher Reyes was born in 1954. Christ got his Hispanic heritage from his father’s side and his Irish heritage from his mother’s side. He earned a bachelor of science degree in finance from the University of Maryland in 1975. In the mid-1970s Christopher, his father, and bother Jude (who is also co-chairman) purchased a Schlitzer beer distributorship in South Carolina for $740,000.
This was the start of what is today Reyes Holdings, LLC. Within a year the brothers added another outlet in Savannah, Georgia. The brothers moved into Chicago in 1979. They were able to persuade a then skeptical Miller to let them purchase Chicago Beverage Systems, Inc. This was a languishing distributorship. At that time Miller’s Chicago market share was less than 10 percent.
Today, Reyes Holdings is a leading provider of food and beverage distribution services in North, Central and South America and Ireland as well. Reyes Beverage Group is the largest malt beverage distribution organization in the United States. Now that itself would be a huge business but that’s not all. Aside from beverage distribution Reyes Holdings through Martin-Brower is the largest supplier worldwide of distribution services to the McDonald’s restaurant system and the sixth largest broadline food distributor in the United States.
Christ and his team has utilized acquisitions of companies as part of their growth strategy like their purchase of La Cross, Wisconsin-based, Reinhart Food Service, Inc. in 2005. At time of purchase it was the nation’s sixth-largest food service company, with $2 billion in annual sales. The firm serves restaurants, military bases and other institutions. There was also the 1998 buyout of Martin-Brower.
Reyes Holdings had sales of $23 billion in 2013.
Outside of Reyes Holdings Chicago-based Christ is involved in other endeavors. He is the chairman of Children’s Memorial Medical Center and a director of Northwestern Memorial Healthcare. Among other affiliations he is also a member of the Mayo Clinic Chicago Leadership Council and a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Notre Dame.
Business Executives 
Posted on September 9, 2014
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