Haney in line for Top Shelf Award
Pub Date: 9/1/2008
By Paul F. Vang
It s a long time and, literally, many miles since 1976 when Jim Haney started work as a truck driver, delivering Coors beer to local retailers for Wood River Beverage in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Haney reminisced with Montana Tavern Times about his long career in the beer business after learning that the Montana Tavern Association nominated him for the 2009 Top Shelf Award, the highest honor bestowed by the American Beverage Licensees, of which MTA is an affiliate.
The award was created to recognize people in the industry who have demonstrated excellence in business as well as service to the industry and their communities.
ABL s state member organizations submit nominations to ABL. ABL, in turn, selects one person for the prestigious award. According to Diana Coon, Executive Director of the Montana Tavern Association, a committee of MTA s past presidents serve as the nominating committee for the award.
MTA s nomination cites Haney s long career with Coors, starting over 20 years ago as a rank and file employee and working his way up, over the years, to his current post as Coors state manager. This is the first time MTA has nominated a non-licensee, either a retailer or distributor, for this award.
Diana Coon commented on the past president s nomination, Everybody likes Jim. Anytime we need anything, he ll always do his best to get it for you.
Haney, as a Coors representative, has long supported MTA as a convention sponsor and vendor, as well as a supporter of MTA social events.
Haney also is a regular sponsor of rodeos and other sporting events across Montana.
Haney admitted that the Top Shelf Award was nowhere on his personal radar screen, so MTA s nomination for the award was humbling. I m very honored, he says. I didn t know it was coming. It s awesome.
Haney followed that first truck-driving job with a gig with another Sun Valley distributor, Hayden Beverage, a beer and wine distributor where he specialized in wines.
In 1985, Haney started working directly for national brewers when he went to work for Heileman-Rainier, where, based out of Salt Lake City, he introduced the Rainier brands, including Henry Weinhard, to Utah and Nevada. Montana was later added to his territory and in 1990 he transferred to Missoula.
In 1991, Coors hired him to represent them in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. Later, they narrowed his territory to concentrate on Montana, though Haney regretted losing his Alaska territory. I d found a fishing guide in Alaska who consented to have his boat re-painted as The Silver Bullet. He would have given me unlimited free fishing from that boat.
In 1996, Coors appointed Haney as their state manager, basing him in Great Falls.
That was a good move, he recalls, my parents lived in Great Falls, were aging and had lots of problems, so I was able to be close to them during their later years. In addition, Great Falls was the headquarters for the Buttrey s chain of stores and a major customer.
In 2008, he elected to move his office back to Missoula. That s where our children went through high school, so it really became the place we wanted to call home, though his residence is actually in Florence, in the Bitterroot Valley south of Missoula.
As a long time worker in the beer business, Haney has had a ringside seat for all the changes in the beer industry, with all its mergers and buy-outs among the major brewers, including the recent merger of Coors with Miller s, which he figured was the only way Coors and Miller could successfully compete with Anheuser Busch, followed just this past month by a Belgian brewing giant, In-Bev, taking over America s brewing behemoth, Anheuser Busch, itself.
As far as his personal perspective, Haney says, It seems like much more of a corporate arrangement now, as he fondly notes that prior to the merger, I reported directly to Christy Coors, Pete Coors daughter, so it really was still a family business.
In his free time, Haney is an active Mason and Shriner. He enjoys fishing, pheasant hunting ( The prospect of packing an elk out of the mountains isn t as fun as it used to be ), and golf.
I also used to have fun riding my Harley Davidson, but it s now for sale, if you know anybody looking for a used Harley.
I also like to sit on my front porch and drink a beer, he concluded, noting that with the combined Coors and Miller lineup of beers, there s a lot more variety in his choices of employer-produced beers than there used to be.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, September, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.