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Texas Alcohol Index - February 2010

Published: 23 April 2010

Austin, TX: Virtue Group, a restaurant research company, announced today the release of the February 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 February 2010: 178.47

TAI February 2009: 181.79

Percentage change from February 09: 2.78%
Inflation Rate for February 2009 - February 2010*: 2.14%

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

Summary

February saw real gains after inflation verse the same month last year. This is the first month to see real gains (verse the same month in the prior year) in over twelve months. Inflation remained relaxed from its high in January, which helped realize the gain of 0.6% over last year for the month, although modest, it is a welcome respite from the stagnant and negative numbers of the previous months.

Further, in a very interesting trend reversal for the past months, the wine segment was the one fueling February's performance, growing 3.9% over the same period last year before inflation. Liquor, was only slightly behind the wine segment, growing at 3.5%. Beer however, saw a low growth of 1.5% for the month before inflation or -0.6% after accounting for inflation.