News Release Contact:
​Virginia ABC Communications - (804) 213-4413
Email: [email protected]

​Check the Shelf: Virginia ABC Streamlines Allocated Product SalesMECHANICSVILLE – Changes are coming to how the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority sells limited availability products.
On a regional store-by-store basis, limited availability products will be put on the shelf for sale. These sales will occur at random dates and times. 
This change goes into effect today, August 6. The one item per customer per day restriction remains in effect. Distribution will now be decided at the regional level, instead of centrally-managed random or pre-announced limited availability drops.
Virginia ABC will no longer notify customers via text message, email or social media when limited availability products are available for sale.
The goal is to shorten the time between products arriving in Virginia ABC’s distribution center and making a sale to customers, while still providing equitable access to these products through a mix of locations and times.
Virginia ABC also sells rare spirits through other means, including online lotteries and in-store barrel pick events. These events will continue. Virginia ABC will continue to notify customers about lotteries and barrel pick events.
Virginia ABC instituted the drop system in April 2022 to create an equitable system for distributing dozens of spirits (predominantly bourbon) for which demand exceeded supply.
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The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (ABC) is a major source of revenue for the commonwealth, contributing more than $2.7 billion to the general fund in the last five years. Virginia ABC currently operates more than 400 state stores and provides alcohol education and prevention programs for people of all ages. Its Bureau of Law Enforcement oversees approximately 19,000 ABC licensed establishments. Now marking its 90th year, ABC remains committed to progress and innovation in carrying out its vision of bringing good spirits and excellent service to Virginia.

WHSV
​By Madison McNamee
Published: Aug. 5, 2024 at 7:15 PM EDT|Updated: Aug. 5, 2024 at 7:16 PM EDT

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) -Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Authority (ABC) saw more than 14,000 bottles stolen in the first six months of 2024, totaling about $800,000 lost.
The problem is impacting areas across the commonwealth, and thieves are targeting stores in different ways. In the most extreme cases, people are going into shops and stealing $9,000 worth of booze at a time. 
In other cases, stores are just getting targeted frequently.
Data from Virginia ABC shows from January to June, there were 3,754 total shoplifting incidents, with 14,326 total bottles taken and $808,371 total retail price losses.

The items taken range in price from 99 cents all the way up to bottles worth more than $500.

Virginia ABC says context is key, as the agency sold $695.2 million in the same time period, making the retail shrink for fiscal year 2024 0.35% of sales. The group also says working with law enforcement helped them charge one adult and three juveniles in Northern Virginia who were a big part of the recent increase in stolen items. 
A spokesperson for Virginia ABC says the group would load up carts and flee stores before police could get there. They ended up stealing more than $145,000 from 26 different stores.
Data from the agency shows some expensive shoplifting incidents in Northern Virginia, where in Manassas, 228 bottles were taken at once, coming out to more than $7,000 worth of booze. In McLean and Woodbridge, thieves took more than $9,000 worth of alcohol in a day.

It is why that specific location is now counter service only, where customers tell an employee what they want, rather than shopping around. Edwards says this new format has helped reduce the number of stolen items.
Virginia ABC says two other stores in Portsmouth have the same format, and the agency is watching the effectiveness of it and also working on emphasizing staff interaction with customers, more frequent inventories, additional audits and enhancing camera systems as a way to deter thieves.
A spokesperson for Virginia ABC says no product is worth risking the safety of team members and customers, and retail staff are trained to gather usable suspect information and leads for law enforcement.
Copyright 2024 WWBT. All rights reserved.

News Release Contact:Virginia ABC Communications - (804) 213-4413
Email: [email protected]


Beginning Monday, July 1, laws impacting the operation of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (ABC), its licensees and applicants for ABC licenses will take effect. The Virginia General Assembly passed the following Virginia ABC-related legislation during the 2024 session, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin has since signed them into law. 


Virginia ABC considered Independent Authority (HB 30, SB 30) – Notwithstanding subsection A of § 2.2-221, Code of Virginia, the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority is considered an independent agency of the Commonwealth. 


Online and Electronic Marketing of Spirits (HB 522, SB 182) – Directs Virginia ABC to promulgate regulations that prescribe the terms and conditions under which manufacturers, brokers, importers and wholesalers may advertise and promote alcoholic beverages via the Internet, social media, direct-to-consumer electronic communication, or other electronic means. 


Cocktails To-Go Permanent, Third-Party Delivery License Ends in 2026 (HB 688, SB 635) – Repeals the July 1, 2024, sunset on provisions that allow distillers that have been appointed as agents of Virginia ABC, mixed beverage restaurant licensees, and limited mixed beverage restaurant licensees to sell mixed beverages for off-premises consumption and farm winery licensees to sell pre-mixed wine for off-premises consumption. The bill also repeals, effective July 1, 2026, third-party delivery licenses. The bill requires the Authority to convene a work group to review third-party delivery licenses and report its findings and recommendations to the Chairmen of the House Committee on General Laws and the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services. 


Offering Alcoholic Beverages on Private Campground (SB 26) – Provides that the prohibition on drinking or offering to another an alcoholic beverage in public shall not apply when such acts are conducted on the premises of a campground located on private property at which a majority of the campers use travel or tent trailers, pickup campers or motor homes or similar recreational vehicles. 


Performing Arts and Sports Facility Licenses (HB 1349, SB 180, SB 400, SB 657) – Defines performing arts facility and sports facility and standardizes the eligibility criteria for annual mixed beverage performing arts facility licenses and on-and-off-premises wine and beer licenses for performing arts food concessionaires. The bill also removes provisions that allow Virginia ABC to grant annual mixed beverage motor sports facility licenses and motor car sporting event facility licenses and creates an annual mixed beverage sports facility license, which may be granted to persons operating a sports facility or food concessions at a sports facility and would authorize the licensee to sell mixed beverages during any event and immediately subsequent thereto to patrons within all seating areas, concourses, walkways, concession areas, and additional designated locations in closed containers for off-premises consumption or in paper, plastic, or similar disposable containers or in single original metal cans for on-premises consumption. 
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Initial Summary Suspension Investigation Start Time (SB 658) – Extends the timeline for completing initial summary suspension investigations if the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.
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The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (ABC) is a major source of revenue for the commonwealth, contributing more than $2.9 billion to the general fund in the last five years. Virginia ABC currently operates more than 400 stores and provides alcohol education and prevention programs for people of all ages. Its Bureau of Law Enforcement oversees approximately 19,000 ABC licensed establishments. Now marking its 90th year, ABC remains committed to progress and innovation in carrying out its vision of bringing good spirits and excellent service to Virginia. 
Web: www.abc.virginia.gov Facebook: @VirginiaABC and @SpiritedVirginia Instagram: @spiritedvirginia X: @VirginiaABC LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/virginiaabc

The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority laid off 25 employees at its headquarters in Hanover County on Tuesday in a reorganization aimed at changing how the state-owned liquor monopoly supplies its retail stores and serves its customers across the state.

The layoffs come three weeks before the authority becomes independent of direct control by the governor and General Assembly, while remaining a significant source of revenue for the state budget to pay for core services provided by state government.

Chief Executive Officer Dale Farino, a former alcoholic beverage distribution executive in Virginia Beach whom Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed as CEO six weeks ago, said it’s not clear what independence will mean for the authority, created in 2015 as a semi-independent body after more than 80 years as a state agency.

But he promised to remain focused on the same bottom line as the governor’s office and assembly budget committees.

“My aim is to operate the authority as a business,” Farino said in an hourlong interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Tuesday. “This has been my marching orders from the governor and the leadership in both the House and Senate, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

“In the end, it’s what does it do to generate more revenues for the state?” he said of the authority’s mission.

Among the changes, former interim CEO Tom Kirby was elevated to a new role as chief operations officer, while keeping his old job as chief law enforcement officer. His new job includes overseeing retail operations, logistics and the distribution center in Hanover that supplies all of ABC’s 403 stores across Virginia. Those responsibilities previously were held by Chief Retail Operations Officer Mark Dunham, who resigned on Friday.

John Singleton will move from his job as human resources director to become chief human resources officer, a new position that replaces the executive job previously held by Chief Information Officer Paul Williams, who was laid off last month. The reorganization also will create a new position of chief commercial officer, which ABC has not yet filled, to oversee marketing, merchandising and other business operations. All of the information technology functions will fall under Chief Financial Officer David Alfano.

The reorganization shrinks the number of previous executive level positions from eight to six. Four executives resigned from ABC last year, including CEO Travis Hill, as the authority came under pressure from the governor’s office to reduce expenses and increase the profits transferred to the state budget. The authority already had eliminated the jobs of chief transformation officer and chief digital and branding officer.

The layoffs did not directly affect ABC’s retail and other field employees, who account for about 3,000 of the 4,000 people whom the authority employs statewide.

The layoffs come after months of turmoil and a projected $110 million shortfall in profits for the next two-year state budget after a steep decline in Virginia liquor sales blew a hole in the budget that the Youngkin administration pushed ABC to adopt in August. The authority responded by leaving jobs unfilled and cutting other operating expenses to manage a projected $4.9 million profit shortfall in the fiscal year that will end on June 30.
Last week, a federal judge dismissed a $1 million federal lawsuit filed by its director of retail operations, Jennifer Burke, who resigned her job on June 3. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne dismissed the case after the parties reached a settlement. The terms of the settlement are not public.

Burke had alleged that ABC had placed her on paid administrative leave last year in retaliation for alleging $1.7 million in lost inventory in the transition of the central ABC distribution center from a more than 60-year-old warehouse in Richmond to a new facility next to the authority’s new headquarters in Atlee in 2022. ABC denied the allegations, asserting in court filings that Burke had been placed on paid leave during an investigation of thefts from stores under her supervision, but was then reinstated.

The authority said lost or stolen inventory, known in the alcohol distribution industry as “shrinkage,” amounted to about $1.1 million, or 0.094% of sales, well below the national average. The estimate was based on a physical count of bottles at the distribution center and retail stories on March 31, 2023.

Farino acknowledged that the authority had not properly accounted for the inventory during the warehouse transition, but he said, “All that has changed since they moved here.”

He said he intends to make more changes, focusing on the culture of the organization, its relationship with suppliers and retail customers, and its operating system to speed the time for delivering orders from 48 hours to overnight.

“Morale when I got here was not good,” Farino said. “There was no comradery. My aim is to restore the comradery.”

He said he wants to “empower” retail store managers and employees to improve how ABC stores serve customers and surrounding communities, instead of putting what he called “rigid guardrails” on how stores operate.

“I’m going to remove those guardrails and allow them to do what they’re being paid to do,” he said.

The son of a former U.S. Navy submariner who settled in Virginia Beach in the early 1960s, Farino spent nine years as an artillery officer in the U.S. Marines Corps. After he left the service, he worked for Coca-Cola and other beverage distributors before returning to Virginia Beach in 1993 to work for Associated Distributors LLC, which now operates as Breakthru Beverage Virginia.

He began as operations director at the company’s warehouse and rose through the ranks over the next 30 years to become its president, before retiring last year. Youngkin appointed him to the ABC Board of Directors as vice chairman earlier this year and then named him CEO on April 23.

​“I was enjoying retirement until I got a phone call from the governor’s office, when I was asked to come and help right a ship,” Farino said.