Holiday gift giving and celebration made things pretty busy for the state Alcoholic Beverages Division. Lynn Walding, the administrator of the division, and told Radio Iowa just before Christmas, sales were really moving. Walding says they’re running about 11-percent this fiscal year above last year in alcohol sales. He says the week before Christmas sales were 19-percent above average.
The fiscal year began in July and since then the division has seen nearly 161-million dollars in alcohol sales with a net profit of 53-million dollars. Walding says the gallons of alcohol sold are up about seven-and-a-half percent. Walding says that’s been the trend for the last five years. He says the trend has been toward liquor and wine and a little away from beer. Walding says the “spirits” industry has become somewhat of a gourmet industry with lots of flavors and unique categories.
Walding says the alcohol companies are coming up with new flavors all the time. Walding says they just got a bunch of new products with pear flavors, and says pomegranate was recently the hot flavor. Walding says many new clubs are showing up that are catering more to an upscale audience.
Walding says about 20-percent of the products get used at bars and clubs, and people in the 21 to 29-year-old age group are probably the biggest market for the alcohol. Walding says that group tends to go out more and probably has more discretionary income to spend on the alcohol.
While the new flavors have been catching on — Walding says the top seller has held steady. Walding says the number one product is and always has been Black Velvet. Walding says one of the fastest growing categories is Vodka. Walding says the use of flavors and the Vodka’s ability to mix with all types of things has made it more profitable.
Sales figures on the division’s website show just over 85-thousand-700 cases of Black Velvet have been sold. Hawkeye Vodka was the number two seller with 66-thousand-31 cases. Also, four of the other top ten sellers are Vodka varieties. To see the full report on state alcohol sales, surf to www.www.iowaabd.com.
Related web sites:
Iowa Alcohol sales info