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Texas Alcohol Index - February 2009

Published: 27 April 2009

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 2009: 174.83

TAI February 2008: 181.30 (175.05 *Leap day adjusted)

Percentage change from February 08: -0.40% (-3.93% *Not adjusted)
Inflation Rate for February 2008 - February 2009*: 0.24%

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

Summary

*First a note on our February numbers: February 2008 was a leap year, meaning the month had 29 days and not 28 days as this year's February had. As sales numbers are reported monthly, and the previous February had 3.5% more days, we deduct this percentage (3.5%) from our sales data to reflect a more accurate comparison when looking at these two months.

Despite the strong rebound seen in January, February performance returned to the stagnate growth levels seen in December. Liquor was able to gain market share during the month. Wine sales suffered considerably during this period, seeing their largest single month decline since September when Hurricane Ike occurred. Wine sales were down 7% after accounting for the leap day.