Ray Tye to Receive ABL Top Shelf Award

Massachusetts Distributor Recognized with Trade Association's Highest Honor

Bethesda, MD (9/22/05) – The American Beverage Licensees (ABL) announced today that A. Raymond (Ray) Tye of Braintree, Massachusetts is the 2006 recipient of the ABL Top Shelf Award. Mr. Tye is Chairman of the Board of United Liquors Ltd., a beverage alcohol distributor in Massachusetts. The Top Shelf Award recognizes those who have demonstrated excellence over their careers in the beverage alcohol industry and have a successful history of positive influence on their communities. It is the highest honor given by ABL and will be presented to Mr. Tye at the 4 th Annual ABL Convention on March 5-7, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Since entering the beverage alcohol industry in 1949, Ray Tye has built a dynasty at United Liquors Ltd. Mr. Tye's fifty-six years at United Liquors Ltd. have seen him rise to the top by employing extraordinary administrative vision and creating a corporate family structure at United Liquors Ltd. that has made them the envy of their competitors. His credo is “Your reputation is the one thing that only you will earn or not earn.” and serves as a resounding reminder of how he has carried out his life's work.

In addition to his business successes, Mr. Tye has tirelessly dedicated himself to charitable causes and service work that have distinguished him from others and made his name synonymous with humanitarianism. Mr. Tye is the President of The Ray Tye Medical Aid Foundation, whose mission is to facilitate access to medical treatments for financially vulnerable individuals in our society. The Foundation seeks to improve the medical community's stewardship to the sick by narrowing the gap between quality medical care and the ability to pay for that care.

His many other service and leadership positions include being a life member of the NAACP, President and Scholarship Chairman of the National Distillers Distributors Foundation, which has sent hundreds of underprivileged students to college and Director of the Sky Ranch for Boys, a youth rehabilitation project sponsored by the beverage alcohol industry. Additionally, by personal appointment by the President, Mr. Tye is a Director of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

“Ray Tye truly is a man without peers when it comes to his work with the community and his work within the beverage alcohol industry,” said ABL Executive Director Harry G. Wiles. “He transformed United Liquors into a model company and market leader, no small feat in itself, and in the meantime managed to have the energy and vision to blaze a trail with his dedication to service, the likes of which we have rarely seen in this industry.”

American Beverage Licensees (ABL)

American Beverage Licensees (ABL) is the nation's largest trade association dedicated to representing the interests of “America's Beer, Wine and Spirits Retailers”.  ABL represents nearly 20,000 bars, restaurants, taverns, and liquor stores, including off-premise licensees in the "open" or "license" states and on-premise proprietors in markets across the country. Today, ABL has members in 348 of the 435 Congressional Districts across the nation. For more information about ABL, please visit www.ablusa.org.