Nws Michigan Inc history

The great experiment of banning alcoholic beverages in the United States, Prohibition, began in 1919 but lasted little more than a decade.

In 1933 President Franklin Roosevelt repealed Prohibition, and a year later the National Liquor Company, predecessor to NWS, was issued Permit #7 from the Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission to distribute spirits in the central Indiana area.

On August 15, 1941, Ohleyer sold his shares to businessman and politician Frank E. McKinney.

By 1944, he had acquired a controlling interest in National Liquor, but shares were held by family members because of his increasing involvement in politics.

The Lasky ownership was short-lived, as virtually all shares of the McHale, McKinney, and Lasky families were redeemed on September 26, 1955, when National Liquor's sales manager, Charles E. Johnson, Jr., acquired the company.

Thirty years later in 1970, the Weather Bureau changed its name to the National Weather Service and was placed under the newly established National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

At the time National Liquor remained very much a local distributor, booking just over $14 million in 1973.

In 1991 the company launched a bottled water business, Cameron Springs Co., to take advantage of Americans' increasing thirst for so-called designer water.

The closing of Continental Distributing Company in Chicago in 1996 provided further opportunity for Union Beverage to add product lines and personnel.

Reorganization Creates Corporate Holding Company in 1998

The reorganization complete, the stage was set for a major bond offering in January 1999 to fund future expansion.