Our 2025 Best Practices Overall Winner: New Hampshire
Our 2025 Best Practices Overall Winner is the New Hampshire Liquor Commission. StateWays Magazine recognizes the NHLC for the depth of excellence the organization displays across a number of popular, modern, and public safety initiatives.
The NHLC was founded in 1934. More than 90 years later, the commission is known and celebrated for affordable prices, excellent stores and best-in-class allocated whiskey programs. Anyone in New England who lives near or travels through the borders of New Hampshire often makes a pitstop at one of the 67 NH Liquor & Wine Outlets operated by the commission. More than half of sales in these stores come from out-of-state customers.
“Everyone likes a deal, and it’s got to be an offer that nobody else will offer them,” says Chairman Joseph Mollica, who has helmed the NHLC since 2011, including overseeing a massive, successful project to redesign and modernize the state stores. “We work with our business partners every day to make sure that we have the best prices. People recognize the value that we provide.”
Handling Rare Spirits
Allocated whiskeys like Buffalo Trace products have enormous demand at retail. The NHLC handles these feverously sought-after bottles in a fair, effective manner.
This includes the commission’s biannual Limited Release Raffles. In 2024, more than 28,000 consumers and licensees entered the spring and fall drawings. Nearly 13,300 individuals received the opportunity to purchase exclusive, hard-to-find spirits.
Other rare items go out in ghost drops, unannounced SKU offerings where large amounts of allocated bourbons become available, suddenly, at suggested retail price. Each drop is announced via email to more than 24,000 subscribers interested in allocated whiskeys, and shared across NHLC’s social media channels, reaching a combined audience of more than 191,000 accounts. Information on these limited-edition product drops and the participating outlets is not announced until the items are available in stores. Products are available on a first-come, first-served basis, and remain available until all stock is sold out. To ensure fairness, each customer is limited to six bottles.
New England whiskey social media explodes whenever the NHLC conducts their raffles and ghost drops.
“We are always listening to customers for advice on how we can get better, and while the feedback on the ghost drops has been 99% good, one thing we decided to do the most recent time based on customer feedback was hold the drops on the weekend,” says Mark Roy, Division Director of Marketing, Merchandising, and Warehousing. A veteran of the NHLC, Roy is the father of the commission’s worldclass whiskey program. “People told us that getting these bottles had been tough logistically when we did them during the week, because people were at work. The initial customer feedback about the recent Saturday ghost drop has been incredible.”
Bike Week Safety
Laconia Bike Week is an extremely large and popular motorcycle rally in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire that dates back to 1916. Approximately 300,000 attendees descend upon the state for seven days every year.
While the event takes place in Laconia, events and activities occur throughout the state. The increased crowds — while revenue-generating for local businesses — create the need for on-premise licensees to bring in temporary help to assist with significantly increased hospitality needs. In an effort the ensure the most successful and safest outcomes, the NHLC’s Division of Enforcement & Licensing conducts an educational campaign throughout the state, both before and during Bike Week.
“We want to make sure that all licensees feel comfortable with all the people that are going to be there that week,” says Mollica. “We provide an opportunity for everyone to be trained and feel comfortable with the swarms of folks that attend Bike Week. We want to change everyone’s idea about what happens during that week, and we want to make sure that they’re prepared for and understand proper alcohol service.”
Two weeks before Bike Week begins, the NHLC Division of Enforcement starts conducting educational premise inspections in and around the rally. The division also distributes educational packets that include links to online training, law references for both tobacco and alcohol licensees and other helpful tips that licensees can speak about with their staff to ensure safe service.
Additionally, leading up to the event, the NHLC Division of Enforcement offers both online and in-person training for all current and new servers to learn New Hampshire alcohol laws, how to properly check IDs and ways to effectively monitor for and prevent overservice.
Last June, the NHLC Division of Enforcement conducted nearly 560 premise inspections related to Bike Week educational endeavors. Additionally, the NHLC Division of Enforcement trained — both in person and online — approximately 500 servers and sellers of alcohol related to the event.
Each year, the NHLC Division of Enforcement deploys investigators to the Bike Week Rally and other areas around the state to conduct premise inspections, assisting licensees with compliance and ensuring the safety of the patrons at local establishments.
“We’re not in the business during Bike Week of going around and shutting people down,” says Roy. “Instead, we want to go in and train people ahead of time so that they can be safe and confident when 1,000 people come through the door.”
Roy resides in the Laconia area and has long attended Bike Week as an enthusiast himself.
“A decade ago, this event was just [Laconia destination] Weirs Beach. Now it happens throughout the whole state,” he says. “We want to be proactive and let everyone know what’s safe to do.”
Robots in the Warehouse
The NHLC and its warehouse/distribution partner, DHL Supply Chain, continually explore new ways to enhance efficiency, boost productivity and streamline operations. The distribution center, which houses all products sold in all NH Liquor & Wine Outlets and spans more than 271,000 square feet, recently introduced Locus Assisted Picking robots in its bottle pick area.
The Locus robots are one of several strategic enhancements made by DHL Supply Chain in its longstanding relationship with NHLC. Since partnering with NHLC in 2013, DHL Supply Chain has invested more than $50 million into the Bow distribution center, directly supporting NHLC’s sales growth.
Eight robots now work side-by-side with employees to boost productivity, efficiency and order accuracy. The robots are programmed to operate in three of the warehouse’s aisles, stocked with 3,000+ SKUs of products typically used for licensee orders, partial case orders and more.
The robots operate throughout the entirety of the order fulfillment process. After the employees program the robots with the order information, the robots move to the location of each product, carrying the load until the order is successfully picked, packed and ready to ship.
“It’s made it this kind of work much easier, because the robot knows exactly where to go and where the product is,” explains Deputy Commissioner Nicole Brassard Jordan. “It takes out the time employees would spend running from place to place. It’s very effective, saves time and our accuracy goes up.”
This improved process also prevents employees from engaging in activities that could cause preventable injury, such as physically pulling cumbersome carts throughout the warehouse, and ensures order accuracy by requiring multiple manual checkpoints throughout the picking and packaging process.
Each robot is programmed by an employee with a corresponding order number. After programming, the employee attaches an empty box to the robot’s base. The robot then travels to the first bottle pick location and prompts the employee to pick the order. It remains locked in place until the pick is successfully completed. Once the order is fully picked, the robot returns to the order fulfillment area. At this point, manual checkpoints verify the order before it is packed and ready for shipment.
As the most advanced technology introduced in the warehouse since the inception of the partnership, the integration of the Locus bots represents the future of logistics, and helps the NHLC deliver better service to its on-and off-premise licensee partners across the state.
90 Years of Cheer
Ninety years after its creation, the NHLC is one of the nation’s top five retailers, and one of the most progressive and profitable of the nation’s 17 control states. The commission serves more than 12 million customers each year, and delivers billions of dollars to the state of New Hampshire to support essential services.
To celebrate its history and impact on the Granite State, NHLC kicked off a year-long campaign, coined “90 Years of Cheers,” in August 2024.
“This milestone is obviously huge,” says Mollica. “I believe we are the first state to celebrate 90 years. It’s important for people to recognize that we’ve been around for that long and have been doing great work for so many years.”
During the celebration, customers who spent $90 or more at certain NH Liquor & Wine Outlets had the opportunity to win prizes, including 90% off in-store coupons, VIP concert packages, tickets to the Daytona 500 and NH Liquor & Wine Outlet gift cards. Several limited-edition products were also available for purchase, with special pricing offered on products like Grey Goose Northern Lights, Caymus Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Maker’s Mark Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Jameson Black Barrel Irish Whiskey and more.
Brand teams traveled to select NH Liquor & Wine Outlets twice a month to host “Legacy Locker” events, giving customers a chance to participate in the program. In addition to their winnings, customers were automatically entered to win a bimonthly grand prize, which featured items such as a four-season package at Loon Mountain, a VIP Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom concert package, $400 worth of Live Nation concert vouchers, Boston Bruins tickets and jerseys, an outdoor kitchen makeover and more. So far, nearly 4,000 customers have submitted a copy of their receipt online to be entered to win one of the grand prizes, including a getaway spa package at Wentworth by the Sea valued at $4,000, a trip for two to Wente Family Vineyards and more.
To educate consumers about its 90-year history, NHLC launched a webpage, 90yearsofcheers.com, with information on where liquor sales in New Hampshire go, as well as details on how to win prizes throughout the year-long campaign. Featured throughout the “Where The Money Goes” tab on the webpage is a video detailing NHLC’s contributions to the New Hampshire General Fund over the past 90 years, a breakdown of how much goes to the different sectors of the General Fund, annual sales statistics and more.
The “Where The Money Goes” video has been viewed by nearly 2.2 million consumers.
“Whether someone imbibes or they don’t, it’s important for them to understand how the money we make goes towards the state’s general fund,” Mollica says, “and to understand that everyone benefits from the great work that the NHLC does.”
The commission has also run several digital campaigns through Google, Stack Adapt and Ground Truth to promote “90 Years of Cheers.” These resulted in more than 56,680 clicks to the webpage, and more than 10.7 million ad impressions. The NHLC also shared information on the campaign to its Facebook and Instagram platforms, generating nearly 1.7 million impressions and more than 33,800 clicks to the “90 Years of Cheers” webpage. Nearly 34,000 people visited a NH Liquor & Wine Outlet location after seeing one of the online ads.
With thousands of in-store visits, prize entries and webpage clicks, the “90 Years of Cheers” campaign resonated with and educated consumers across New Hampshire and beyond. It also resonated with the officials who run the state and allow the NHLC to operate in an efficient manner.
“I want to thank the Governor, the executive council and the legislature for supporting us,” says Mollica. “We wouldn’t have the success we have without their support.”
“A whole lot of people go into making it 90 years, and we want to make sure that our program celebrates everyone,” he adds. “We couldn’t do it without our brokers and our support partners. Our program also celebrates our customers and our employees. This program is a big happy birthday to everybody, and here’s to the next 90 years.”
Kyle Swartz is editor of StateWays Magazine. Reach him at kswartz@epgacceleration.com. Read his recent piece, The State of U.S. Whiskey at Kentucky Bourbon Fest 2025.
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