Распределение по алфавиту и вывод в несколько колонок

{literal}
<style>
  .brands .letters {
    margin-bottom: 20px;
  }
  .brands .letters a {
    font-weight: bold;
    margin-right: 2px;
  }
  .brands .letters a:hover {
    text-decoration: underline;
  }
  .brands .brand-group {
    border-bottom: 2px dotted #c8c8c8;
    padding-bottom: 10px;
    margin-bottom: 20px;
    padding-left: 70px;
    position: relative;
  }
  .brands .brand-group .brand {
    vertical-align: middle;
    display: inline-block;
    text-align: center;
    text-decoration: none;
    margin-right: 10px;
    margin-bottom: 10px;
    width: 165px;
    max-width: 165px !important;
    height: 92px;
    padding: 5px 4px;
    border: 1px solid #d1d1d1;
  }
  .brands .brand-group .letter {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0px;
    left: 0px;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: 200%;
  }
  .brand-group span.fix {
    display: inline-block;
    height: 80px;    
    vertical-align: middle;
  }
  .brand-group img, .brand-group span {    
    display: inline-block;
    vertical-align: middle;
    max-width: 150px;
    max-height: 80px;
  }
</style> 
{/literal}
{$_letters = []}
{foreach $brands as $b_id => $b}
  {$_c = mb_strtoupper(mb_substr($b.name, 0, 1))}
  {if is_numeric($_c)}
      {$_c = '0-9'}
  {/if}
  {$_letters[$_c][$b_id] = $b}
{/foreach}
{$_ = ksort($_letters)}
<div class="brands">
  <div class="letters">
    {foreach $_letters as $_l => $_l_brands}
      <a href="#{$_l}">{$_l}</a>
    {/foreach}
  </div>
  
  {foreach $_letters as $_l => $_l_brands}
  <div class="brand-group">
    <div class="letter" id="{$_l}">{$_l}</div>
    {foreach $_l_brands as $b}{strip}
      <a href="{$b.url}" title="{$b.name|escape}" class="brand">
        <span class="fix"></span>
        {if $b.image}
            <img alt="{$b.name|escape}" src="{$wa_url}wa-data/public/shop/brands/{$b.id}/{$b.id}{$b.image}">
        {else}
            <span{if mb_strlen($b.name) > 15} style="font-size: 80%"{/if}>{$b.name}</span>
        {/if}
      </a>
    {/strip}{/foreach}
  </div>  
  {/foreach}
</div>