Back | Print

Texas Alcohol Index - April 2010

Published: 1 July 2010

Austin, TX: Virtue Group, a restaurant research company, announced today the release of the April 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 April 2010: 194.10

TAI April 2009: 183.15

Percentage change from April 09: 6.28%
Inflation Rate for April 2009 - April 2010*: 2.24%

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

Summary

The number of mixed beverage accounts reporting for the year has kept growing at a steady pace, there were 3.24% more establishments this April reporting than in April of last year. This sustained expansion was able to adequately cater to renewed consumer interest in the industry during this period of economic easing, resulting in a large increase in year over year sales for the month. Consumer preferences favored the wine category which saw for the second month in a row growth above 8%; beer grew at 5.26% but lost market share; as Liquor sales grew 6.36% with the general trend.

The new trend that has been established in past several months of this year seems to indicated a resurgence for the industry as a whole but in particular a renewed appetite for wine and liquor at the expense of beer. The growth spurt has so far been largest during the spring months of March and April, and May indicators look promising as well.