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Texas Alcohol Index - September 2009

Published: 28 October 2009

Austin, TX: Virtue Group, a restaurant research company, announced today the release of the September 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 September 2009: 167.96

TAI September 2008: 164.65

Percentage change from September 08: 2.4%
Inflation Rate for September 2008 - September 2009*: -1.29%

* 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: September 2000. Tracks growth or decline in the mixed beverage market sales from previous months and from the same month last year.

Summary

September sales, as anticipated, proved to be the first month with a positive change over the same month last year since January. However, this is notably due to the fact the Hurricane Ike depressed sales considerably during this period last year. Compared to the same month two years ago, beverage sales are down 1%. Most of the growth this month came from the beer segment; beer was up 4.91%, wine 1%, and liquor, 0.8%.

The number of establishments reporting beverage sales in Texas peaked in July. However, the numbers of reportees did not experience further declines during the month but remained at August's level. Also, preliminary October beverage sales numbers look positive, and we are expecting a consecutive month of growth in beverage sales.