MINNEAPOLIS — Miller, Coors and other popular beers may disappear from Minnesota stores and bars within days because brewing giant MillerCoors lacks the proper licenses due to the state’s government shutdown.
MillerCoors has 39 “brand label registrations” with the state that expired last month, and the employees who process renewals were laid off when state government shut down July 1 in a budget dispute, Doug Neville, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said Wednesday.
State alcohol enforcement officials who remain on the job recently told officials with Chicago-based MillerCoors that they need to come up with a plan soon for pulling their products, he said.
MillerCoors spokesman Julian Green said the brewer still hopes to resolve the dispute through discussions with state alcohol regulators, but didn’t rule out legal action.
Green said MillerCoors submitted its paperwork and the check on time, June 13. Neville said the state didn’t receive them until June 15.
