HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
Minogue’s Beverage Centers celebrates century of service
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Local company Minogue’s Beverage Centers is celebrating 100 years of quenching the community’s thirst.
Over the past century - from Prohibition to the current coronavirus pandemic - this family business has found a way to survive and thrive in the beverage industry.
In 1921, Michael Thomas Minogue purchased a soda bottling plant and distribution business in Granville. Minogue was a young man at the time, an Irish immigrant who recently returned from serving for the U.S. military in World War I.
During his first decade or so in business, Minogue became known as a bootlegger that would sell beer alongside the soda products.
When prohibition was lifted in the 1930s, Minogue was issued the 34th wholesale beer license in New York state - and the Minogue’s Beverage Center in Queensbury still operates under that same license.
The business was later operated by John Minogue
Sr., who took on this entrepreneurial role after returning home from World War II.
The company operated as a wholesale beer distributor for Carling Black Label and Löwenbräu until 1967, when the Minogues decided to instead focus on retail with the store in Queensbury.
In the late 1900s, Minogue’s Beverage Centers expanded into Saratoga County, with a Saratoga Springs store in 1977 and another in Wilton in 1990.
A fourth Minogue’s Beverage Center opened in 2012 in Malta, and remains the company’s newest store.
Today, the company is operated by a third generation, John Minogue Jr., who is proudly ushering the longtime family business into its second century.
“The industry has changed tremendously,” said Minogue, who’s been involved with the business for more than 50 years. “It’s so much different than it was 15 or 20 years ago. It’s like night and day, with all the craft brewers opening up.”
Along with the many iconic beer brands, the four centers now carry a wide
variety of craft beer and cider, including ever-changing seasonal varieties, and Minogue feels thankful for the technology that helps with managing all this diverse inventory.
“It’s made the business more interesting,” he continued. “There’s always something new on the shelf.”
In addition to beer, the business is still in the soda game, with an aisle in each store dedicated to soft drinks.
Though the company’s 99th year was certainly trying
due to COVID-19, overall sales have increased during the pandemic. “It’s been good,” Minogue said, “but I would much prefer to go back to the old days.”
Looking ahead to the future of the business on this milestone anniversary, Minogue said he’s all done expanding it, but plans to continue running Minogue’s
Beverage Centers for as long as possible, because he likes it.
“I enjoy the beverage business,” he said. “It’s just in my blood.”