“This is a family business,” said company president Frank Eugene Bertucci, not to be confused with his father, Frank Emmanuel Bertucci, who will turn 85 this month and still comes to work every day. The junior Frank and his brother, Paul, the company’s executive vice president, are third generation. The fourth generation, Frank’s youngest son, Ryland, graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree in economics and recently joined the company as an area sales manager over convenience stores.

A 10,000-square-foot, $1 million expansion of the warehouse on Intraplex Parkway is under way and business is good. But Frank said, “Our business is not recession proof like some people believe.” They’ve been through tight economic times before and he said they weather downturns better than a lot of other businesses.

“We could do what we do with less people,” he said, but they have never laid off employees and the management told the employees if they continue to perform, their job is secure, “This is our commitment not only to our people but to the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” Frank said. “Our success is attributed to our employees.” They start rolling at 5 a.m. and they stay late working with customers, he said.

F.E.B. Distributing has about 900 wholesale accounts and operates from the Alabama to the Louisiana line.

“We have such a great portfolio of beers,” said Frank, selling most brands except the Anheuser-Busch line. They added the Coors and Corona when they acquired F&F Distributing in 2008 and Frank calls their Coors Light and Miller Lite brands “a 1-2 punch” in the beer world.

“It’s changed more in the last 5 to 6 years than the 70 years before that,” the senior Frank said of the beer business. “If you don’t sell 2 to 4 million cases a year, you ought not to be in the business. Light beer by far is the most popular selling beer in the country. Until about the 1970s, there wasn’t any such thing as a light beer. I guess people’s taste changes,” he said.

In the early days, “Most of the beers were regional brewed beers,” said Frank junior, and were brewed within 100 miles. New Orleans had 7 or 8 breweries and Jax was the only brand S.J. Bertucci sold when he started the company.

“It’s global now,” he said, with 90 percent of the beers in the United States brewed by foreign entities.

The method of selling beer has also changed, and the company has 100 percent pre-sell. The sales staff visits stores, casinos and restaurants, sells new product and immediately transmits orders by phone with hand-held computers.

“We build the loads and they go out the following day,” he said. With 100 brands and 350 different packages, “You can’t put all that on one truck.”

One of Frank’s first jobs was route sales and he said the technology has changed from a carbon order pad and calculator to the hand-held computers. There were no cell phones or beepers 30 years ago. “It was a great way to work,” he said.

“Technologically the changes have been beyond some of our wildest dreams,” said Paul. The technology is expensive, but he said the investment is quickly returned.

Their grandfather, S.J. Bertucci, started the business on 29th Street in Gulfport and in the 1940s added distributorships in Hattiesburg and Jackson. The Jackson company still operates under the Capital City Beverage name. Frank Emmanuel returned from World War II and began working with his father and his sons joined the business about 30 years ago. They moved the business from downtown Gulfport to the Intraplex Parkway in 2000, which gave them the opportunity to expand.

“I always had ambition to come back into the family beer business,” said Frank. After he graduated from University of Southern Mississippi, “I actually gave my father my resume and asked him if I could have a job,”

Each person brings different interests and talents to the business. “Paul is a high tech guy. I’m computer illiterate,” said Frank. “When you put all our strengths together, we’re a dynamic company. Generation through generation we’ve found that’s one of the reasons we’ve always been so successful.”

They’ve also developed contacts with beer distributors across the country.

“We send people to other operations to get best practices,” said Frank junior. “You always come back with some fresh ideas.” They went to Las Vegas to learn about the casino business when casinos opened on the Coast and Paul said they have friends in the industry all over the country.

“It’s just a communications network. It’s a huge business but it’s a small family,” who he said they can call, e-mail or get together with and talk about beer over a beer.

Frank senior was honored with the 2006 Miller Legends award, presented to only two or three of the 600 nationwide wholesalers, and in 2007 he was given the National Beer Wholesalers Association Lifetime Service Award. “He didn’t want it, He sure deserved it,” said his son, Frank.

“This is such a happy business,” said his father. “Even the people we compete against are good people.”