PR: Liquor Licensee’s May Be Permitted to Deliver Wine to Your Home

PITTSBURGH, PA (PittsburghNewsWire.com) —  Specialty Group President, Ned Sokoloff, believes his licensing division has discovered an unnoticed opportunity for retail licensees to deliver wine to customers’ homes. After receiving multiple inquiries from our clients, we thoroughly revisited the historic announcement from the PLCB, on March 11, 2015.

The pivotal announcement from the PLCB, Advisory Notice No. 22, allowed Restaurant, Eating Place Malt Beverage, or Hotel Licensee’s to delivery Malt or Brewed beverages directly to customers. If retail licensees’ wanted the ability to deliver, the PLCB stated that an additional license is required, a Transporter-For-Hire license. This license comes in three different classes: class A, B and C. The Class B Transporter-For-Hire received the most notoriety as it was defined as allowing “…the holder to engage in the commercial transportation of malt or brewed beverages only to or from points located in the commonwealth”. What was overlooked? The Class A license which allows the delivery of liquor, malt or brewed beverages or alcohol.

On August 8, 2016, the PLCB announced that with a “wine expanded permit” which extended the opportunity for the sale of wine for off-premises consumption. Restaurants, bars, hotels, grocery stores, gas stations, etc. are now able to sell up to 3,000ml (3 liters) for off-premises consumption. This creates a compelling question, why isn’t wine being delivered to customers homes? A transporter-for-hire class A license paired up with a wine expanded permit seems to be the resolution. To support our findings, Specialty discovered a PLCB Advisory Opinion from July 27, 2016 stating that, “If approved for a wine expanded permit and a Transporter-for-hire Class A license, you would then be permitted to transport wine or beer to a customer’s home provided that the sale of the items is completed on your licensed premises before the delivery occurs.”

The information we have compiled supports with the right permit and license, retail licensee’s should be able to transport malt or brewed beverages and wine. We believe that delivering wine to customers’ homes is going to make a positive impact for both retail licensees and consumers. Specialty Group is currently assisting a client that has applied for a Transporter-For-Hire class A license with hopes of delivering wine to his customers’.

Specialty Group, in its 30th year, is Pennsylvania’s one-stop-shop for business services provided exclusively for people who own restaurants or those who would like to get into the restaurant industry. Since 1986, Specialty Group has assisted and advised thousands of clients with liquor licensing, buying and selling restaurants.