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Texas Alcohol Index - April 2009

Published: 1 July 2009

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 2009: 181.54

TAI April 2008: 184.91

Percentage change from April 08: -1.82%
Inflation Rate for April 2008 - April 2009*: -0.74%

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

Summary

April sales continued the declining trend we have seen since February of this year in the Texas On-Premise alcohol industry. Total On-Premise sales were down by about $7 million, although there were actually 120 more establishments reporting on-premise sales in April 2009 than in April 2008. With the number of establishments increasing, and total consumer spending lightening, we are seeing an intensely competitive marketplace, where operators are open and keen to learn and explore options that can help them stay competitive.

Wine sales suffered their largest single monthly decline since we began tracking in 2000, with sales off 10.5% over the same month last year. Beer sales were down, 0.75%, and Liquor sales, in an interesting reversal to the past several months, were able to grow their sales by 0.1% over last year, and preserve an even larger part of their overall segment share.

Year to date, the industry is up 1% over the same period of time last year, fueled by the strong growth witnessed in January. When considering the deflationary effect of the consumer price index, and decreased consumer spending, the On-Premise alcohol industry in Texas has been able to preserve its impressive gains of previous years and even generate modest growth.