2025 BEST PRACTICE AWARDS
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
14 StateWays • Fall 2025 www. stateways. com