W
hile the U.S. economy appears to be in a
modest recovery mode, the wine and spirits
industry continues to pick up steam. Indeed,
overall wine and spirits sales volume saw healthy growth
in 2012, according to the latest statistics, just released in
the Handbook Advance 2013, published by the Beverage
Information Group. Total U.S. distilled spirits sales
volume rose to almost 206 million 9-liter cases, representing a 3.6% gain versus 2011 (which saw an increase
of 2.6% sales volume over 2010). And overall spirits retail
revenue growth (the combined dollar total of off- and
on-premise sales) also increased, by a hefty 5.4% to
$72.12 billion, an almost $3.7 billion jump over 2011.
Underlining the trends of the past few years, a significant
part of that increase is the result of more sales activity at
the premium and above-premium price segments.
In fact, the latest statistics from DISCUS [The
Distilled Spirits Council of the United States] point out a
notable trend toward upscale purchases: From 2003 to
2012, supplier sales of value products rose 24.5%, while
using the same metric, supplier sales of superpremium
spirits products gained 163.0%. This movement is clearly
indicated by the higher percentage revenue gains versus
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sales volume gains, as impressive as they may be.
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 (compared to
an overall 2.5% wine volume increase in 2011), 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.
SPIRITS OVERVIEW
T
he vodka category continues to dominate the spirits
landscape in the U.S. The huge segment rose
another 5.6% in 2012, following a 6.0% increase in
2011. Overall, the vodka segment added almost 4 million 9-liter cases to its 2012 total of approximately 70.2
million 9-liter cases. Indeed, vodka now represents just
about one-third of all spirits consumed in the U.S., with
new expressions, flavors and brands from around the
world continually testing the U.S. marketplace. Even
with the deluge of unusual flavor introductions, vodka
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