Pricing and Mix Still Strong

Despite tales of increases in tactical discounting (over half of distribs report that discounting activity is increasing in their markets), the pricing data for beer continues to remain strong. The Feds reported that September Beer CPI (at home) rose by 4.4% over September 2003, well above the national CPI growth of 2.5%. Beer pricing has outpaced national inflation for over a year now. We should also note that some of that increase can be attributed to product mix, particularly since