U.S. Spirits Consumption Grows for 12th Straight Year

According to the recently released 2010 Liquor Handbook, the Beverage Information Group found that total spirits consumption rose 1.6 percent from 2009 to 2010. This gain marks the twelfth consecutive year of advances for the industry, although this rate of expansion has slowed.

“Due to the economic environment, we have seen a ‘trading down effect’ with more consumption in lower-priced tiers,” says Eric Schmidt, manager of information services for the Beverage Information Group, Norwalk, Conn. “As a result, we are seeing heavy price fighting and couponing taking place in order for suppliers to maintain growth and share.“

Another interesting trend cited in the 2010 Liquor Handbook is that the domestic spirits segment is growing faster than the import spirit segment for the second consecutive year. The data also shows that there has been a significant shift from on-premise consumption (restaurants, bars, etc.) towards at-home consumption.

So even though the recession has slowed the rate of growth in the spirits industry, the type of spirits consumption, and the primary location of consumption, the industry is still kicking strong.

2010 Liquor Handbook
For more than 50 years, the Liquor Handbook has been the most authoritative, reliable and accurate source for information on annual distilled spirits sales and consumption. The 300-plus page volume offers detailed data on every spirits category, a ranking of the industrys top 150 brands, a breakdown of advertising expenditures by brand and company, supplier performance, category development indices, major metro market demographics and more. Each category section includes a 12-year history of consumption listed by state market. Publication Date: June 2010

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