ACNielsen Brings New Enhancements to Industry-Leading Liquor Store Channel Information Service.

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. -- Phased Refinements to LiquorTrack Market-Level Information Service Continue on Schedule with Completion of Three More Markets

ACNielsen U.S. today announced that it has expanded the market coverage of its LiquorTrack(R) information service as part of the just-completed second phase of an overall service enhancement project.

Under the project, the store sample in each of LiquorTrack's 13 local markets is being expanded and refined to provide a more comprehensive view of the liquor-store channel. LiquorTrack is the exclusive provider of market-level information for the channel in each of the 13 markets covered by the service.

Danny Brager, vice president, ACNielsen U.S. Beverage Alcohol Group, said, "With regulations preventing the sale of alcohol in food and drug stores in many states, liquor stores represent a vitally-important class of trade for beverage alcohol manufacturers and their distributors. The enhancements we're making are enabling us to provide new insights into liquor store sales, distribution, pricing and promotion at a local market level. We are very pleased to offer our clients the industry's most complete set of insights for this important channel."

Using information from TDLinx(R), an ACNielsen brand and the industry-standard source for retail location and hierarchy information, each enhanced LiquorTrack market fully represents the universe of that market's liquor store retailers - from independents to chains. In fact, LiquorTrack is the only information service in the beverage alcohol industry to include independent liquor stores in its sample.

In 2004, four LiquorTrack markets were enhanced: Atlanta, Denver, New York, and Miami. Phase II is now complete with the store sample expansion in three additional markets - Boston, Minneapolis, and New Jersey. Remaining current Liquor markets are to be enhanced over the course of the next year.

ACNielsen has been tracking retail sales of beverage alcohol in grocery, drug, convenience and liquor stores since 1993 and is the leading provider of sales analysis and consumer insights for the beverage alcohol industry. Services include:

--LiquorTrack, the most comprehensive liquor store sales information service available, and the only source of both market-level insights and key account-specific information;

--Convenience Track(R), which monitors beer sales in convenience stores nationally and in 22 local markets;

--ACNielsen's census-based trade area reports, which analyze sales at specific retailers within their custom-defined geographies;

--The Homescan(R) consumer panel , which provides shopper insights across all off-premise channels;

--ACNielsen On-Premise Audits, which are conducted in a representative sample of more than 2,600 establishments in 26 major U.S. markets, to measure the presence of major distilled spirit brands in restaurants, bars, nightclubs, hotels and recreational facilities;

--ACNielsen Centers of Excellence, which provide advanced analytics work in beverage alcohol pricing, promotion, assortment, merchandising, in-market new product testing, and marketing mix modeling.

ACNielsen, a VNU business, is the world's leading marketing information provider. Offering services in more than 100 countries, the unit provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behavior. Clients rely on ACNielsen's market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing and sales campaigns.

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