 The beer industry is made up of companies specializing in the production of beer, although many of them produce other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Beverages are considered consumer staples so the beer industry may be considered a small part of the broader consumer staples sector. Beer stocks, as represented by the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF XLP, have underperformed the broader market, providing investors with a total return of 6.6 compared to the SP; 500s total return of 14.3 over the past 12 months. These market performance numbers and the statistics in the tables below are as of June 10. 