StateWays Q www.stateways.com Q November/December 2014
10
D A T E L I N E
I
n 1978, the North Carolina General Assembly
approved liquor-by-the-drink permits for the fi rst
time in 70 years. Three years later Mike Herring
was hired as a fi eld auditor assigned to monitor
bars and restaurants granted permits. Little did he know
at the time, but Herring would rise from a fi eld auditor
to an audit division supervisor to assistant administrator
and for the past 19 years the state's chief administrator.
Gross sales have nearly tripled in North Carolina un-
der Herring's leadership, and the state's $867 million in
gross sales for Fiscal Year 2014 ranks fourth in the con-
trol states. Herring will retire at the end of 2014 after
33 years with the ABC, but we caught up with him for a
quick interview before he and his wife, Liz, pack up and
begin spending more time in their second home in the
North Carolina mountains.
StateWays: What did the industry look like when
you were starting out, and what were the challenges
North Carolina faced at the time?
Mike Herring: We were a conservative state, so from right
after Prohibition up through the 80s there was a strong
opposition to alcohol in general. There were a lot of dry
pockets of the state where there was no alcohol whatsoev-
er. In 1980, we had 139 local ABC boards, approximately
1,500 liquor-by-the-drink permits and gross sales coming
out of ABC stores around $281 million. We really started
to see tremendous growth around 2001 and have been go-
ing upwards ever since. Today we have 169 ABC boards,
about 5,600 liquor-by-the-drink permits and gross sales
over $850 million. The other thing that is interesting is
that back then we had one winery, one brewery and no
distilleries operating in North Carolina. Today, there are
145 wineries, 90 breweries and 15 distilleries.
SW: How did your early days working in the audit
department inform your career as an administrator?
MH: It helped a lot. Not only was I working with retail-
ers in my early days of fi eld auditing but also the peo-
ple holding liquor-by-the-drink permits. I also started
working with the local ABC boards, learning how their
operations worked and what their needs were. I came
away not only being able to understand the policy and
the laws but also how they affect business.
SW: What are the accomplishments in your career
that you're most proud of?
HAIL
TO THE
CHIEF
RETIRING NORTH CAROLINA
CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR
MIKE HERRING LOOKS BACK
ON HIS 33-YEAR CAREER
WITH THE ABC
By Matt Remsberg
IF YOU CAN USE A
LITTLE COMMON SENSE,
YOU CAN HELP PEOPLE
FIND A WAY TO GET THINGS
DONE THAT ARE FOR THE
BETTERMENT OF THE STATE
AND THE BUSINESSES.
"
—Mike Herring
"
