DBPR Press Release:

TALLAHASSEE—

Today the Department of Business and Professional Regulation announced a major acceleration in one of its licensing processes, expediting a transaction from eight weeks to mere minutes.

To sell alcoholic beverages in Florida, each brand must be licensed with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Previously, numerous paper forms had to be submitted to the division and processed. The time from receiving the forms to issuing a license took eight weeks. Now, DBPR offers an online alternative with a one-stop format for registering multiple brands and automatic data sharing with the Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to capture electronic images of labels.

“When the beverage industry raised concerns about the time it took to license a brand, we listened and created a solution,” said Secretary Charlie Liem “Within minutes of going online to obtain a license to sell a brand, alcoholic beverage manufacturers and wholesalers can move forward with getting those beverages to retailers’ shelves.”

The advancement in brand licensing streamlines the process and is part of DBPR’s larger effort to make all professional and business applications Web-based and user-friendly. Prior to beginning each streamlining project, DBPR identifies any unnecessary steps that are not required by law and eliminates those steps. By reducing bureaucratic burden, DBPR intends to make Florida a more business-friendly environment.

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s mission is to license efficiently and regulate fairly. The department licenses more than one million businesses and professionals ranging from real estate agents, veterinarians, and accountants to contractors and cosmetologists, hotels and restaurants. For more information, please visit MyFloridaLicense.com.