Family-Owned Stores are “Perfect Fit” for Expanding Company

INDIANAPOLIS—United Package Liquors has acquired four new properties in Bowling Green, Ky., extending its ownership of package stores out of state for the first time in the company’s 46-year history.

United Package Liquors, with corporate headquarters in Indianapolis, owns 24 package stores in central Indiana and has grown to $25 million in annual revenues—with 8 percent growth in the last 14 months alone. The company’s stores in Indiana employ 150 people.

With the expansion, United Package Liquors now has 28 package stores in Indiana and Kentucky and 190 employees.

The acquisition of Chuck’s Liquor Outlet, which represents four family-owned stores led by three generations of the family of Chuck Evans, is a natural extension for the Indianapolis-based United Package Liquors.

“These are family-owned stores and well established in their communities,” said United Package Liquors CEO and President Brad Rider. “Similar to our stores in Indiana, our new Kentucky stores also support local nonprofits and community causes. It was a good fit for us and we are working to keep some of the Evans family members tied into key management roles.”

United Package Liquors owner, chairman and CFO Leon Riggs started the company in 1964. In Kentucky, the Evans family established the first Chuck’s Liquor Outlet in the early 1970s. Robert Evans, general manager of the four Bowling Green locations, said his father began negotiations more than a year ago to sell—also suggesting the owners and operations had consistent similarities in business practices, management styles and community investment.

Rider said the four retail stores would retain their local names, but would organize under the corporate designation of United Package Liquor of Kentucky.

Rider, who is also the current chairman of the Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers, has managed the company through an aggressive acquisition and growth period, including the new extension into Kentucky.

United Package Liquors’ charity arm, United Hope Foundation, has donated more than $500,000 in the past five years to central Indiana charities, including Riley Hospital for Children and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Rider said the philanthropic model will be duplicated to support charities and nonprofit groups in the Bowling Green area.

In 2009, Market Watch designated United Package Liquors as a Market Watch Leader, an honor given to only six retailers in the nation. The company was also singled out for its leading standards and innovations, including:

• A state-of-the-art security system with 300 cameras across the entire chain of stores which can be tapped by laptop or cell phones at any given moment
• A gentleman retailer’s agreement to avoid new construction next to existing retailers in the industry
• Innovative stock-tracking systems that go well beyond the capability of most retail networks
• A comprehensive and diverse stock ranging from $5 bottles of Arbor Mist White Zinfandel to $158 for a 1999 Dom Perignon as well as a growing private label stock
• Regular wine and beer seminars for customers

About United Package Liquors
United Package Liquors, with corporate offices in Indianapolis, owns 28 package stores in Indiana and Kentucky. The company was founded by Leon Riggs in 1964 to give consumers a safe, personable and respectable business in which to shop. For more information, visit www.unitedpackageliquors.com or become a fan on Facebook.