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Key Drink Trends of 2007
On an overall basis, growth in consumer expenditures on beverage
alcohol in 2006 slowed somewhat. On-premise sales of alcohol grew by
4.5 percent last year, which is down from levels seen the past several
years.
Technomic, at the end of 2006, released its forecast for 2007, and
while we anticipate pockets of strong growth, overall on-premise sales
growth is expected to slow to around 4 percent. As always, growth in
spirits/mixed drinks will continue to drive overall market growth.
The Role of Price
Over the past several years, much of the growth in the beverage alcohol
category has been price-driven, either through a move toward premium
products with a higher price, or by operators through price increases.
We believe that consumers will be more resistant to price increases in
2007, and strongly believe that operators need to focus on driving
beverage incidence and increasing the number of beverage occasions.
Our on-going research consistently shows that less than half of all
consumers have had a drink on-premise in the past 30 days, and this
means that there is tremendous untapped opportunity in appealing to the
casual drinker who is not a regular consumer of alcohol in the
on-premise channel.
Responsibility on the Rise
Beyond sales growth, key issues for operators include increasing the
profitability of their beverage program and training servers to
recognize and prevent over-consumption. The percentage of operators
voicing a concern for these issues slightly increased in 2006.
Seventy-six percent reported training to recognize over-consumption as
a top concern in 2006, up from 70 percent in 2005. Increasing
profitability was a concern for 72 percent of operators this year,
compared to 70 percent last year.
Clearly, keys for the operator will be growing volume and sales, improving profitability, and avoiding clearly risky
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