As the US emerges bleary-eyed from Thanksgiving last week, drinks companies will be edgily awaiting early feedback on sales during the holiday period in the country.

For distillers, in particular, the months building up to this year's holiday season have yielded grounds for optimism. Both Diageo and Pernod Ricard have reported improvements in the US market, and analyst group Sanford Bernstein said earlier this month that promotional activity in the third quarter of 2010 was 1.4% lower than in the same period of 2009.

Moving into the fourth quarter, Bernstein added: "October promotions were not down as much (-1.1%), but we still think this is a positive sign for companies' pricing and margins going forward." US spirits volume sales have also returned to a more solid footing so far this year. Volume sales in controlled states were up by 3% year-on-year at the end of September, on a three-month rolling trend.

On Diageo specifically, Bernstein said: "We have seen major improvements in volume trends for some of Diageo's largest brands, Smirnoff, Crown Royal, and Jose Cuervo." Pernod and Beam Global Spirits & Wine, too, outperformed the US spirits market in October, the analyst group added. However, Brown-Forman's Jack Daniel and Southern Comfort whiskeys are thought to have continued to struggle.

Overall, then, there would appear to be at least some reasons for seasonal cheer about the market's development.

With the end of the year approaching, we're lining up our annual review of the global drinks industry for your perusal. Starting this week, and running up to Christmas, we'll take a detailed look at how 2010 has treated the beer, soft drinks, spirits, water and wine sectors. Here's how 2009 looked, if you'd like to set the scene before reading this year's round-ups. Also, just-drinks members can access Euromonitor's preview of this year here, to see how good their predictions really were.

Finally, I, along with many men around the world, have been doing my part for Movember. The disfigurement is due to come off tomorrow, so click here to see just how bad it has got, and click here to applaud all of our efforts with a generous donation to the Prostate Cancer Charity.

Until next time...

Olly Wehring
Managing Editor
Web: http://www.just-drinks.com
Email: editor@just-drinks.com
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