Back | Print

Texas Alcohol Index - August 2009

Published: 28 October 2009

Austin, TX: Virtue Group, a restaurant research company, announced today the release of the August TAI, the Texas Alcohol Index. The index is an aid to track the vitality and performance of the on-premise alcoholic beverage market in Texas. The index is released monthly, trailing two months. The TAI is intended to aid in assessing the vitality of the on-premise alcohol market in Texas and the entire full-service restaurant market as a whole.

Virtue Group Texas Alcohol Index: TAI

TAI August 2009: 177.15

TAI August 2008: 185.75

Percentage change from August 08: -4.63%
Inflation Rate for August 2008 - August 2009*: -1.48%

* Estimated inflation based on the change in the CPI-U for the period.

What is the TAI?

Monthly economic indicator for on-premise mixed beverage sales in the state of Texas. Monitors monthly gross alcohol sales relative to a base period: August 2000. Tracks growth or decline in the mixed beverage market sales from previous months and from the same month last year.

Summary

Beverage sales throughout August saw percentage declines in line with this year's June performance. August declines were still larger however, than the losses influenced by Hurricane Ike almost a year earlier. All sales categories were down for the month: Beer, Liquor, and Wine saw sales decline by 2.48%, 5.26%, and 8.25%, respectively, over August last year. Central Texas and the Houston area experienced the lowest rate of declines, but none of the five large metropolitan areas in Texas (Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth) saw positive gains for the period.

Interestingly, the number of establishments seems to have remained constant at about 11,800 since it peaked in June. Last year's establishments reporting also peaked in June at about 11,600, a 1.7% difference.

September numbers are looking positive with currently 70% of establishments reporting for that month, and we expect to see an increase particularly over the month of Ike last year.