Economic Impact Report

The Economic Impact and Value Added by U.S. Beer Distributors is a comprehensive report on beer distribution companies’ total impact on national and state economies.

The report, produced by Dr. Paul Larson, Dr. Bill Latham and Dr. Ken Lewis of the Center for Applied Business & Economic Research at the University of Delaware, provides an in-depth view of beer distributors’ economic contributions by taking into account how beer distributor activities are intertwined with many parts of the economy, especially the personal services sector.

It also accounts for resources beer distributors contribute to supporting community events, local economic development and contributing to charitable causes, as well as promoting responsible alcohol use. The impacts of these activities are added to the usual impacts of distributor operations.

Key Findings

  • Beer distributors directly employ approximately 142,000 full-time equivalent persons paying $9.9 billion in income through wages, salaries, benefits and profits. In total, the industry helps to create over 387,000 jobs and generates $23 billion in income.
  • Beer distributors directly impact the economy through $34.5 billion of production. When including indirect effects on other industries, capital investment spending that is different from other wholesaling operations and charitable activity, beer distributors help to add $87 billion to the national total value of production.
  • Beer distributors directly generate $12.2 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue through business and employment taxes.