Gene McEnery elected Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois chair

Eugene McEnery III, vice chairman and chief operating officer of Euclid Beverage LLC, was elected chair of the Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois (ABDI) for FY ’14. He will also serve another one-year term as director-at-large. McEnery has served in many capacities with ABDI including vice chair, assistant vice chair, assistant secretary, director and chair of the Public Affairs Committee and Convention Committee.

McEnery will continue to stress the importance of transparency and accountability of the three-tier regulatory system (manufacturer-distributor-retailer). Through the separation of the three tiers, consumers benefit by the distributors assuring that only safe products are delivered to the retailers, distributors providing a diversity of products (more than 13,000 SKUs) and distributors providing a means for new brands of all suppliers to enter the market. The state benefits by the distributors paying the taxes and providing a means to track all products. McEnery has been in the beer distribution business since 1995. Euclid Beverage distributes MillerCoors LLC, Heineken USA, Crown Imports, Boston Beer, Mark Anthony, Diageo–Guinness, Molson, Pabst Brewing, Scottish Newcastle, Sierra Nevada and Revolution Brewery, as well as many craft beers.

The Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois, a not-for-profit business trade association, represents, maintains and improves the interests of its members who distribute beer of all brewers. Distributors are licensed by the State of Illinois to import and distribute beer to licensed retailers. ABDI members directly employ more than 3,300 people across the state. They collect and pay $63 million each year in excise taxes to the state and pay more than $280 million in direct wages and health care benefits.