Stateways

StateWays - May/June 2016

StateWays is the only magazine exclusively covering the control state system within the beverage alcohol industry, with annual updates from liquor control commissions and alcohol control boards and yearly fiscal reporting from control jurisdictions

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45 StateWays n www.stateways.com n May/June 2016 [Committee Chairman] N. MARC SATTERTHWAITE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF OF STAFF, AMERICAS, IMEA, TRAVEL RETAIL BROWN-FORMAN "The Many Facets of Collaboration" This marks another outstanding year for the control states' beverage alcohol businesses, as many posted record growth and revenues. Our most recent congratulations go to the larg- est NABCA member, Pennsylvania, which made headlines for its accomplishment. Similarly, Brown-For- man products contin- ued to over-perform in these same control states and our people remain long-term col- laborative partners working closely with each of their operations. The irony here is on full display for all that desire to take notice: many of the control states remain under pressure to privatize their systems; however, their sales mod- els continue to produce record fi nancial returns. While tax revenue sources from other areas are continu- ally falling short, and state legislatures are challenged with ongoing budget issues, the beverage alcohol portion of these businesses is posting solid returns back to the public coffers. It seems doubtful that the Washington State privatization sce- nario, which kept much of the state tax system in place and led to higher prices, will be repeated. So, where and how does a control state offset this decline in revenue to make room for full-scale privatization? The solution seems to be improving and updating the existing control models to meet the ever- changing consumers' needs. And this appears to be happening with many of them already. And, now, onto the powerful word, "collaboration," and its importance as we think about suppliers and state bever- age alcohol regulatory agencies. Like so many of the strong words in our language, the defi nition of "collaboration" is eas- ily understood, but can be diffi cult to embrace or execute at the level needed. In short, it is defi ned as the action of laboring with someone (or together) to produce or create something. You can thank the Romans for providing us with two more Latin root words that could be joined together to create this one for our own English dictionaries. Viewing collaboration from an industry point of view, Steve est NABCA member, Pennsylvania, which made headlines the ADVISORY COMMITTEE WEIGHS IN W hat does the future hold for control states and the alcohol products they sell? And what important new trends and shifts have transpired in the past year? For insight into these questions, StateWays has once again turned to executives on either side of the state/company relationship. Throughout the year, the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association (NABCA) Board of Directors meets with the Industry Advisory Committee — a group of industry leaders from distilled spirits companies — to address new and ongoing issues facing the beverage alcohol industry and the control states. StateWays asks these committee members to participate annually in a virtual roundtable, in which they are invited to discuss accomplishments of the past year, challenges facing their industry and the future for the control states. The theme of the annual NABCA conference in 2016 is "Collaboration Creates Opportunity," following last year's "Caring for the Customer." We suggested that Industry Advisory Committee members consider those NABCA themes as possible jumping off points for their comments. We also proposed that they could address any number of issues affecting the industry and the control states, including social media, social responsibility, modernization, best practices or anything else that comes to mind.

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