Brewer disputes shutdown-related snafu claim
Add Minnesotas beer supply to the casualties of the state government shutdown.
MillerCoors could pull its brands from the state within days, and some bar and restaurant owners could run out of alcoholic beverages because they failed to get state licenses renewed before the July 1 start of the shutdown.
MillerCoors, the nation No. 2 brewer behind Anheuser-Busch, has days to get most of its beer brands out of Minnesota stores and bars, said Doug Neville, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. That is because MillerCoors accidentally overpaid the $1,170 fee $30 for each of 39 brands that it needed to spend for its three-year beer brand registration license. The situation prevented the company from having the license renewed.
Company spokesman Julian Green says MillerCoors met state laws and submitted the correct payment by June 30. MillerCoors officials are considering all options, including legal ones, to continue selling in Minnesota, where the company holds 38 percent of the market, Green said.
Neville said there is nothing the Public Safety Department can do for the company. The 10 alcohol enforcement workers who handle licensing are laid off, along with more than 20,000 other state workers.
There is nothing in the statute that allows us to make accommodation for anyone, Neville said. The Public Safety Department has asked MillerCoors to submit plans for pulling its product from stores and bars in the state.
Brands affected include Miller High Life, Coors Light and Fosters Lager Beer. (See below for details.) Not included on the list are brands from Chippewa Falls, Wis.-based Leinenkugel Brewing Co., which is part of MillerCoors but handles its registration separately.
Neville knew of no other beer, wine or liquor brand that is in the same predicament as MillerCoors. Anheuser-Busch is up for a Minnesota license renewal in October.
Liquor store owners may not be hurt per se if Miller brands go off the shelves. Jeremiah Cich, owner of the Liquor Barrel on Excelsior Boulevard in St. Louis Park, thinks customers who like Miller brands will be annoyed but will not drive to Wisconsin to get their beer. Theyll probably switch to something else, he said.
Out of the thousands of Minnesota bars and liquor stores, a few hundred are in a similar licensing pickle. Their alcohol supplies are dwindling because they were unable to get beer purchasing licenses renewed before the shutdown. Out of the 10,000 license-holders in the state, 300 have licenses that are expired, a number that will grow to more than 400 next month, Neville said.
Two weeks have now gone by since Gov. Mark Dayton, a DFLer, and the Republican-controlled state Legislature failed to reach an agreement on closing a two-year, $5 billion budget deficit, sparking the only state government shutdown under way in the country.
Lots of people around here are getting royally screwed.
