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A.  No wholesale permit shall be issued or held after issuance by any person unless at all times he meets the standards set forth as follows:

(1)  Maintains warehouse space either owned or leased by the wholesaler, or dedicated to his use in a public warehouse, and:

(a)  Such space shall be sufficient to store at one time a stock of liquor equal to ten percent or more of the wholesaler’s annual case volume of liquor sales to retailers within this state, or

(b)  Maintains at all times in the warehouse a stock of liquor owned by him, not consigned, nor then sold, consisting of not less than five percent of his annual sales to retailers, and whose cost of acquisition is fifty thousand dollars or more.

(2)  Maintains delivery equipment which shall be leased or owned and dedicated to his primary use for the distribution and delivery of alcoholic beverages.  The requirement that the delivery equipment be dedicated to a primary use for the distribution and delivery of alcoholic beverages shall not apply to any person continuously holding a wholesale permit issued pursuant to this Chapter for the three years immediately prior to January 1, 2010.

(3)  Maintains brand representation with at least one distillery, or liquor manufacturer.

(4)  Maintains sales of liquor to retailers generally within his immediate trade area, making sales to at least twenty percent of the retailers in said area with separate sales to retailers accounting for at least fifty percent of the gallonage handled by him.

B.  No wholesale permit shall be issued or held after issuance by any person who does not in good faith actually carry on or intend to carry on a bona fide wholesale business by sale to retail permittees of the alcoholic beverages on hand, and the commissioner may revoke any wholesale permit when the permittee fails for a period of forty-five days actively and in good faith to engage in the wholesale business, and shall revoke any wholesale permit for any other violation of this Section or the rules and regulations adopted pursuant to the enforcement hereof.

C.  Sale by a wholesaler to himself as a retailer, or as a partner in a retail establishment is not a bona fide wholesale transaction.  No wholesaler shall store any of his stock on the premises of any retail establishment.

D.  Persons engaged primarily in the sale, handling, distribution, and storage of alcoholic beverages which are ultimately delivered or transported beyond the borders of the state are exempt from complying with the standards set forth in this Section.

E.  The commissioner may adopt and publish rules and regulations for the enforcement of this Section.

Acts 1987, No. 696, §1; Acts 2010, No. 125, §1.