July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
This one's for you
Miller marks 60th anniversary as distributor
This one's for you
Jay Miller may be 83.
But right now, he's like a little kid.
"It'll never happen again," he says, smiling and shaking his head at his good fortune. "They came in for my 50th anniversary, and they're coming back for eight days for my 60th."
"They" are the famous Budweiser Clydesdales, the iconic horses pulling a 19th century beer wagon in countless advertisements and TV commercials.
To some, they may just be horses. But to Miller, those gentle giants have come to symbolize something special about America and his own career in business.
A look around Miller's office is like a tour of a Budweiser museum: Dozens of mugs and beer steins featuring the Clydesdales, reproductions of turn of the century magazine ads, endless snapshots of celebrities - Dizzy Dean, Lionel Hampton, Roger Maris, Edward G. Robinson, Lou Rawls, Ed McMahon, Lillian Carter, Henry Fonda, Mel Tillis, Harry James, Woody Herman, Dan Marino, Lawrence Welk, Pete Fountain, Doc Severinsen, and Frank Sinatra - that Miller met during his 60 years as a beer distributor.
But Miller is always quick to point out his diploma, which he received in 1943, from a national school for dry cleaning technology in Washington, D.C.
That's where his business career began. The beer business came later.
His father, Earl Miller, and Ned Gray owned a pair of dry cleaners under the name of Keep-U-Neat, one in Portland and one in Dunkirk.
About 1940, Miller and Gray decided to split the business. Gray kept the Portland shop, while the Millers moved to Dunkirk.
"That town was such a nice town," Miller recalls.
He spent his first year and a half of high school at Portland but is a proud member of the Dunkirk High School class of 1943.
The 1930s and '40s were boom times for the dry cleaning business. Times were tough, and people were less inclined to buy new clothes, so the volume to clean was higher. Miller recalls one holiday season when he dry cleaned a full ton of clothing in a single day.
They were also boom times for big band music, and Miller - who had suffered from asthma since childhood - was soon playing saxophone at the advice of the family physician.
But as the 1940s wound down, things were changing.
"We could see what was going to happen to the dry cleaning business," says Miller. And when an opportunity developed to buy out a beer distributor in Portland, Miller borrowed money from his father and took a leap.
It was May 28, 1943, and he was just 23 years old.
"I'm sure I was the youngest beer distributor in America," he says. And today - after massive consolidation in the beer wholesaling business - Jay County Beverage is still unique: It's probably the smallest independent beer distributor in the country.
The company has six employees, while its nearest competitor has 600.
"When I started, there were 22 accounts we serviced," says Miller. At that time, the company operated out of a building that used to be located adjacent to The Commercial Review's current offices. In 1960, it moved operations to its current location, erecting a building on Morton Street on land that had been the site of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp during the Depression. In 1986, Miller expanded his territory to include Randolph County and now has about 60 accounts.
Over the years, the business continued to evolve as Indiana's alcohol laws changed.
Until 1954, package liquor stores could sell only wine or hard liquor, no beer. They couldn't sell cold beer until 1962.
Packaging evolved as well, and in the 1980s Jay County Beverage established the area's first aluminum recycling effort with Jay-Randolph Developmental Services.
"I set that up 20 some year ago, and they've made over $400,000. That's a lot of money, and they're still going strong," says Miller.
What hasn't changed is Miller's approach to customer service, calling on accounts seven days a week. "That's what I do every day," he says. "I make sure everybody's happy and pick up the orders."
But having the Clydesdales come and having them visit Dunkirk where Saint-Gobain Container produces millions of Budweiser bottles daily is a special treat.
"I get more interest in the Clydesdales than anything," says Miller. "Everybody loves them."[[In-content Ad]]
But right now, he's like a little kid.
"It'll never happen again," he says, smiling and shaking his head at his good fortune. "They came in for my 50th anniversary, and they're coming back for eight days for my 60th."
"They" are the famous Budweiser Clydesdales, the iconic horses pulling a 19th century beer wagon in countless advertisements and TV commercials.
To some, they may just be horses. But to Miller, those gentle giants have come to symbolize something special about America and his own career in business.
A look around Miller's office is like a tour of a Budweiser museum: Dozens of mugs and beer steins featuring the Clydesdales, reproductions of turn of the century magazine ads, endless snapshots of celebrities - Dizzy Dean, Lionel Hampton, Roger Maris, Edward G. Robinson, Lou Rawls, Ed McMahon, Lillian Carter, Henry Fonda, Mel Tillis, Harry James, Woody Herman, Dan Marino, Lawrence Welk, Pete Fountain, Doc Severinsen, and Frank Sinatra - that Miller met during his 60 years as a beer distributor.
But Miller is always quick to point out his diploma, which he received in 1943, from a national school for dry cleaning technology in Washington, D.C.
That's where his business career began. The beer business came later.
His father, Earl Miller, and Ned Gray owned a pair of dry cleaners under the name of Keep-U-Neat, one in Portland and one in Dunkirk.
About 1940, Miller and Gray decided to split the business. Gray kept the Portland shop, while the Millers moved to Dunkirk.
"That town was such a nice town," Miller recalls.
He spent his first year and a half of high school at Portland but is a proud member of the Dunkirk High School class of 1943.
The 1930s and '40s were boom times for the dry cleaning business. Times were tough, and people were less inclined to buy new clothes, so the volume to clean was higher. Miller recalls one holiday season when he dry cleaned a full ton of clothing in a single day.
They were also boom times for big band music, and Miller - who had suffered from asthma since childhood - was soon playing saxophone at the advice of the family physician.
But as the 1940s wound down, things were changing.
"We could see what was going to happen to the dry cleaning business," says Miller. And when an opportunity developed to buy out a beer distributor in Portland, Miller borrowed money from his father and took a leap.
It was May 28, 1943, and he was just 23 years old.
"I'm sure I was the youngest beer distributor in America," he says. And today - after massive consolidation in the beer wholesaling business - Jay County Beverage is still unique: It's probably the smallest independent beer distributor in the country.
The company has six employees, while its nearest competitor has 600.
"When I started, there were 22 accounts we serviced," says Miller. At that time, the company operated out of a building that used to be located adjacent to The Commercial Review's current offices. In 1960, it moved operations to its current location, erecting a building on Morton Street on land that had been the site of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp during the Depression. In 1986, Miller expanded his territory to include Randolph County and now has about 60 accounts.
Over the years, the business continued to evolve as Indiana's alcohol laws changed.
Until 1954, package liquor stores could sell only wine or hard liquor, no beer. They couldn't sell cold beer until 1962.
Packaging evolved as well, and in the 1980s Jay County Beverage established the area's first aluminum recycling effort with Jay-Randolph Developmental Services.
"I set that up 20 some year ago, and they've made over $400,000. That's a lot of money, and they're still going strong," says Miller.
What hasn't changed is Miller's approach to customer service, calling on accounts seven days a week. "That's what I do every day," he says. "I make sure everybody's happy and pick up the orders."
But having the Clydesdales come and having them visit Dunkirk where Saint-Gobain Container produces millions of Budweiser bottles daily is a special treat.
"I get more interest in the Clydesdales than anything," says Miller. "Everybody loves them."[[In-content Ad]]
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