About

A History of Excellence

Harris Beverages traces its roots back to 1933 and the end of prohibition. As a small part of the Durham Fruit and Produce Company, Budweiser sales were so small that produce salesmen carried wooden cases of returnable bottles with them on the same truck as the lettuce and potatoes.

As sales grew over the years, the beer business was spun off and renamed Ace Distributing Company. Joe Harris, the retired Chairman of the Board, purchased Ace in 1975 and renamed it Harris Incorporated.

 

 

Joe spent the next 30+ years growing the company, building warehouses in Durham, Chapel Hill, and Henderson NC.

In the early 1990’s, Mr. Harris split the business into 3 separate companies – Harris Incorporated (purchased by his daughter Sunny in Chapel Hill), Harris Incorporated of Durham (which he sold to his oldest son Jay), and Harris Incorporated of Henderson (bought by his son Paul). For over a decade, the three companies operated independently of each other until 2004 when Sunny retired and sold her company to Jay. Nearly another decade later in 2012, Paul retired and sold his company to Jay as well, consolidating the final branch of Joe Harris’ original company back to a single owner.

Renamed Harris Beverages, we now sell and service Durham, Orange, Person, Vance, Granville, Franklin, and Warren counties and the town of Pittsboro, NC.