According to NABCA’s control state results for the month of September, 9-L spirits case sales have grown by 1.5%. As price/mix almost equaled August’s at 2.2%, spirits shelf dollars increased by 3.7%. While this contrasted with a growth rate of 5.4% in shelf dollars year-to-date, 10 control states (ID, MT, NH, NC, OH, OR, UT, VA, VT, WY) all surpassed their 12 month trends. It is important to note, however, that these results were slightly skewed, due to the fact that this past September had 1 more selling day than last year’s. After taking that into consideration by equivalizing 9-L spirits case sales, volumetric growth for the month equaled 3.4% compared to rolling-12-month’s growth of 2.6%. The growth rates by category are as follows: brandy/cognac (9.9%), Canadian whiskey (1.5%), cocktails (-1.0%), cordials (-2.7%), domestic whiskey (2.4%), gin (-1.1%), Irish whiskey (12.0%), rum (-0.9%), scotch (-1.2%), tequila (8.9%), and vodka (0.9%). Similar to past months, Irish whiskey was the fasted growing category overall. Tequila, on the other hand, was the sole category that exceeded its 12-month trend. 9-L wine case sales grew at 2.5% in September as well.
Source: NABCA