Published: 09 October, 2025
Writing about the state of the drinks trade over the past year, it can be hard not to get drawn towards a general sense of gloom. Amid the frustration at a raft of government policies that have unfairly hamstrung the sector, from off-trade to on, one thing that has become clear is the industry is willing to fight for a fairer legislative landscape. The recent revelation that duty receipts have been in decline despite the February tax hike shows that those frustrated across the wine and spirits world were lucid in their critique. Calls for change are all the more vital at present given the Budget is due to be announced on 26 November. Harpers sought the perspective of leading industry figures before the government’s next key policy announcement.
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Published: 01 October, 2025
Today (1 October) marks the commencement of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) levy. It also marks the deadline for which ‘large producers’ under the scheme must report their packaging data for the first half of 2025.
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Published: 24 September, 2025
Fresh figures from HMRC’s latest alcohol duty receipts (published 19 September) show that revenue is down -4.3%. This will frustrate many in the drinks industry who faced a February hike of wine and spirits duty.
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Published: 20 August, 2025
A new survey from leading hospitality trade bodies has revealed that 69% of businesses queried are operating at or below 85% capacity.
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Published: 08 August, 2025
For the next edition of our Summer Q&A series Doug Wregg, director of sales and marketing at Les Caves de Pyrene, contemplates what has been a challenging year for the wine trade.
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Published: 06 August, 2025
Cambridge Wine Merchants' Hal Wilson steps up to provide the next contribution to our Summer Q&A series.
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Dawn Davies, buying director at Speciality Drinks, the latest contributor to our summer Q&A series, ponders recent events in the ever-dynamic world of spirits.
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The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill includes a ban on upward-only rent review clauses in commercial leases.
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The first iteration of the WSTA Industry Summit since 2019 could not have come at a more pertinent time for the sector. On the docket were tariffs and domestic headaches, but also themes of adaptability and resilience.
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The delayed details of the official cost per tonne of glass as part of the government’s EPR scheme have been announced by DEFRA.
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The government’s announcement of its new Industrial Strategy has been met with frustration from figures inside the hospitality trade. UKHospitality has noted that the sector is among the industries not included in the Strategy’s energy bill reduction plan.
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Birmingham’s nightlife scene is set to see several high profile venues close their doors in the space of one month in an ominous trend for the UK’s second city.
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The first iteration of the WSTA Industry Summit since 2019 saw themes of resilience and adaptability underscore the global and domestic challenges explored. Key takeaways from the event included tariff predictions and the need to unwind the ever-frustrating policy burden of “three-word acronyms” from EPR to RAM.
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New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) can reveal that the number of payrolled employees decreased by 109,000 in May compared to the previous month. The employment drop comes after April’s National Insurance Contributions (NICs) policy changes.
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I recently took part in a discussion panel at the London Wine Fair. The topic was how the drinks trade could put moderation and balance back at the centre of the debate about booze. The urgency of the question is underlined by the growing strength of ideologically driven temperance organisations, along with stark warnings from health bodies, including the World Health Organisation.
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Published: 11 April, 2025
Effective from Saturday (12 April) China will raise tariffs on US goods in a tit-for-tat escalation which sees both countries now imposing tariffs of 125% on the other.
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Published: 08 April, 2025
Stéphane Séjourné, European commissioner for industrial strategy, has announced that tariffs against bourbon could be removed from the EU list of retaliatory tariffs against the US.
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Published: 07 April, 2025
A new working group, which includes industry body UKHospitality (UKH), has been announced by the UK government to look into how to reduce barriers in the country’s licensing system.
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Published: 01 April, 2025
Figures from across the drinks trade have reacted to the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation which came into effect today (1 April). The new policy which was intended to introduce a “polluters pay principle” regarding packaging waste has faced significant backlash from the drinks industry due to a series of perceived flaws.
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Published: 27 March, 2025
Data from the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking’s (IARD) 2025 Report on Underage Drinking can reveal that since 2010, underage drinking has fallen or stabilised in 58% of the 66 countries analysed. Included within this cohort are countries for whom there were reductions of underage drinking of 40% or more including Australia, the US and Japan.
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