Restaurant Sciences' Data Unveils Wine Prices Inching Up Over Last 6 Months in Restaurants

NEWTON, MA--(Marketwired - May 1, 2013) - Restaurant Sciences, an independent firm that closely tracks food and beverage product sales throughout the foodservice industry in North America, reports that wine prices in American restaurants have been increasing steadily over Q4 2012 and Q1 2013. "Family Dining and White-Tablecloth segments are taking the biggest increases," said Chuck Ellis, President of Restaurant Sciences LLC. The accompanying chart shows the increases by industry segment.

On average, the mid-priced Casual and Upscale-Casual segments have posted only modest upticks at 1.90% and 1.99%, respectively. But Family Dining increases average nearly 8.36%, well outside the 2.86% Relative Standard Error of the study for this specific sector. Also showing a price increase were White-Tablecloth establishments, posting a substantial 5.35% average price increase.

"Casual and Upscale-Casual restaurants took very little price increases these past 6 months despite overall sales softness in these tiers," said Ellis.

The Restaurant Sciences survey examined over 28 million wine "drinks" -- any purchase of a glass, bottle or carafe of wine, representing $289 million in restaurant wine sales. The data reflects a same-store sub-sampling of over 5,000 restaurants, but specifically excludes Bars, Nightclubs, Hotel restaurants & bars, Fast-Food, Fast-Casual and concession or institutional establishments. 

About Restaurant Sciences

Restaurant Sciences is the premier provider of syndicated data and insights on food and beverage consumption in restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other foodservice establishments. The company delivers market share, market basket, competitive analysis, pricing, promotional, trend, segmentation and custom analytics to food and beverage manufacturers and distributors, as well as the broader industry they serve. Restaurant Sciences transforms over $1 Billion per month in guest check-level sales information into detailed data and insights across all segments of the foodservice landscape in the United States and Canada. Insights are delivered online through their business intelligence tool or through custom analytics. Visit www.restaurantsciences.com.