Published: 18 November, 2024
The “no & low” category, as it’s become lovingly known, is one that many spirits boffins struggled to get their heads around at first. When you look at the statistics, the success of no & low is startling. For the last two years in the UK, growth in the category has massively outperformed the overall total beverage alcohol volumes and in 2023 sales of low alcohol products doubled (IWSR data). And there are other markets around the world where it’s even bigger, where moderation and sobriety are more common and embedded in the culture. But let’s be straight – it’s still a small category when compared to rum, vodka, or even tequila – but the overall trajectory is on the up and expected to continue well into the next five years and beyond.
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Published: 31 October, 2024
An outcry has erupted from the trade following yesterday’s Autumn Budget, which led to disappointment on many fronts, including a measly 1p off draught beer, further rises to duty for wine and a lowered rate of business rates relief which has been described a kick in the teeth to businesses.
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With the UK general election just a whisker away and the current Prime Minster all but admitting a crushing defeat, the WSTA has issued an open letter calling on the incoming government to make permanent the duty easement.
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Published: 26 March, 2024
The government is using public health arguments as a “thin veneer to maintain market distortions” Miles Beale, chief executive of the WSTA, has said in a rebuttal of the claims made by Gareth Davies at the Westminster Hall debate earlier this month.
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Published: 06 March, 2024
The government dashed hopes of a cut to alcohol duty following the announcement of the Spring Budget today (6 March) by chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
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Published: 01 March, 2024
The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) along with over 100 UK wine and spirit producers, retailers and hospitality businesses have called on the government to cut duty in a ‘last-ditch plea’ ahead of the Budget announcement on 6 March.
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Published: 05 February, 2024
A group of award-winning small distillers have penned an open letter to Jeremy Hunt calling for a cut to alcohol duty in the Spring Budget.
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Published: 07 September, 2023
Bordeaux winemaker and British expat Gavin Quinney says UK duty is ‘even crazier’ than we first thought.
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Published: 30 August, 2023
Harpers’ latest survey canvassed the UK’s independent retailers to ask which cost pressures are affecting them most and to what extent. Now, the results are in – and we can the report that price rises have become a necessary evil for the majority of businesses.
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Published: 17 August, 2023
Scotch whisky has managed to maintain its momentum on the export market following a record-breaking year in 2022, with the first six months of 2023 bringing home over £2.5bn.
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Published: 17 August, 2023
Harpers wants to hear from indie retailers as to how the 1 August duty rises – and associated costs – are impacting business.
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Published: 14 August, 2023
Independent merchants, long considered the backbone of the quality drinks trade in the UK, were woefully underrepresented among those consulted by government over the duty changes now hitting businesses.
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Published: 09 August, 2023
Economic depression tends to lead consumers to splash out on little luxuries. This is the idea behind the ‘lipstick effect’, coined by Estée Lauder’s Leonard Lauder to describe the rocketing rise of lipsticks in 2008, post the 9/11 attacks in New York and while global markets teetered on the brink of financial meltdown. By extension – and with the cost of living and wage stagnation pushing prices higher – alcohol still seems to fall within a comparatively ‘affordable luxury’ bracket.
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Published: 04 August, 2023
So, the deadline has come and gone – and despite an avalanche of criticism, including a letter sent by Hennings Wine owner Matt Hennings to his local MP in June, begging the government to wake up and smell the bonfire, the trade is now facing increases to the tune of 20% or 44p per 75cl bottle.
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With swingeing duty rises about to hit the trade, Hallgarten & Novum Wines’ MD Andrew Bewes looks beyond the headline cost and turns his attention to the challenges operators face when implementing the increase at ground level.
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Published: 31 March, 2023
Confirmation that the UK has signed up to the Asia-Pacific trade pact will open new markets down the line for some in the drinks trade, but will offer little sustenance in the short term.
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Published: 14 March, 2023
Industry heads are warning that wine drinkers could face rocketing prices if the chancellor goes ahead with a double-pronged tax hike, likely to be announced at tomorrow’s Spring Budget.
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Published: 14 October, 2022
WineGB has criticised the set up of the government’s duty relief scheme which effectively denies small wine producers support.
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The WSTA struck a note somewhere between optimism and realism at the opening briefing of this year’s London Wine Fair, calling for “resilience and resistance” in order to manifest a more fully formed recovery of the wine and spirit trade post-Covid.
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Published: 22 March, 2022
The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) has convened a meeting of MPs and Lords to hear first-hand from British businesses how the ‘punishing’ proposals for duty reform from three to 27 tax bands will negatively impact the drinks industry and consumers.
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