E D I T O R ��� S
N O T E
StateWays
��
Executive Vice President
and Group Publisher
Charles Forman
Tel: 845-426-6072
Fax: 845-426-6423
Business Is Up; Guess
Who Might Ruin It?
A
email:
cforman@m2media360.com
Editor- in-Chief
s I write this we have entered unknown economic territory: the feared ���sequester���
has just kicked in, and it���s looking more and more as if the deep thinkers in
Washington have reached a new low in dysfunction. There are some observers who
are playing down the potential negative effects, but one thing is for certain: by taking a
meat-cleaver approach to cutting $85 billion dollars from the federal budget, most analysts
say the country is risking throwing at least 750,000 people out of work within the next six
months. Since the economy has been rebounding, albeit at a modest pace, this seriously dumb
act is certain to slow that progress. It���s not only the thousands of defense-sector workers who
will lose their jobs or be furloughed for prolonged periods, it���s also the hundreds of thousands
of workers who keep our civil society functioning, from air traffic controllers, teachers and
first responders, to health and safety inspectors, to name a few. And it���s not like these people
will just disappear: many will file for unemployment benefits, stretching already troubled
state budgets; they will not be paying taxes on the money they are no longer earning, and
they will not be purchasing discretionary goods and services with the money they no longer
have. Unfortunately, some of those goods will probably be beverage alcohol products. Though
our industry was mostly spared during the recent Great Recession, there were disappointing
trends, such as the decrease in sales of above-premium and superpremium products and the
increase in sales of large-size, value-priced packages. This could easily happen again, if
Congress doesn���t come to its senses. Right now, it���s looking bleak.
On the other hand, as we point out in our Growth Brands cover story (turn to page 8),
the wine and spirits industry has been doing quite well, and our 2012 statistical results
underline healthy growth in both sales volume and revenues. Total U.S. distilled spirits sales
volume in 2012 rose to almost 206 million 9-liter cases, representing a 3.6% gain versus
2011. And overall spirits retail revenue growth (the combined dollar total of off- and onpremise sales) also increased, by a hefty 5.4% to $72.12 billion, an almost $3.7 billion jump
over 2011. This result underlines the fact that a significant part of the increase is produced
by more sales activity at the premium and above-premium price segments. The same holds
true in the wine segment. Total U.S. wine sales volume increased by 2.7% in 2012, to
approximately 320.8 million 9-liter cases, the nineteenth consecutive year of wine sales volume
increases, according to Beverage Information Group research. Similar to spirits, the move
toward high-end purchases continued in the wine segment, evidenced by the segment���s 3.9%
revenue increase in 2012 to $28.9 billion.
These positive trends can certainly continue, but we need our elected officials to see the
light. Let���s all hope they do.
Richard Brandes
Tel: 212-353-3832
rbrandes@m2media360.com
Managing Editor
Jeremy Nedelka
email:
jnedelka@m2media360.com
Art Director
Adam Lane
Contributing Editor
Cheryl Ursin
Vice President of Sales,
Associate Publisher
Anthony Bongiovanni
tbongiovanni@m2media360.com
Senior Regional Sales Manager
Mark Marcon
mmarcon@m2media360.com
Senior Regional Sales Manager
Debbie Rittenberg
drittenberg@m2media360.com
Senior Research Analyst
Adam Rogers
List Rental Manager
Cheryl Naughton
cnaughton@m2media360.com
StateWays is published by
The Beverage Information Group,
a division of Specialty Information
Media
Editorial and executive offices are
at 17 High St., 2nd Fl.,
Norwalk, CT 06851
Telephone: (203) 855-8499
Richard Brandes, Editor-in-Chief
Fax: (203) 855-9446
e-mail:
rbrandes@m2media360.com
4
StateWays I www.stateways.com I March/April 2013