Drinks lobby coasts into battle

The Call Time on Duty campaign ramped up its activity against the duty escalator a notch last night with the launch of a new ‘coaster campaign’ to raise public awareness. Before the Budget on 19 March, it plans to release over 300,000 ‘drinks coasters’ into the on-trade to raise public awareness of how much UK consumers pay in duty on wine and spirits – and put pressure on George Osbourne to abolish the“punitive” above inflation hikes.

(And make no mistake, though they may look the same, drinks coasters are definitely NOT the same as beer mats, I was firmly told.)

The event – at a hotel bar in Westminster – brought together the brains behind the campaign: the Wine & Spirits Trade Association, the Scotch Whisky Association, and the Tax Payers’ Alliance; with members of the drinks industry and some notable faces from Westminster. Among them, former Defra minister Caroline Spelman and the SNP member for Moray, Angus Robertson. Whether they were there to lend their support or maybe just for a quick drink and a catch up, remains to be seen; the mood in the room was certainly upbeat. But will the Call Time on Duty Campaign gets what it wants?

The industry seems hopeful. Speaking to The Grocer, Tesco BWS boss Dan Jago called it an “impressive” campaign, and with the three organisations pooling their experience, it was likely to bring some clout. “Tackling it with one voice is very powerful,” he said.

This is certainly what the SWA is hoping for. With the association itself booming and an explosion of distilleries being set up, it says it’s vital to keep the momentum going. Although export may be the Holy Grail, new, smaller malt whisky brands are reliant on the domestic market to establish themselves and bring in income during the early years when stock is laid down to mature. Suppressing the domestic market is likely to have repercussions – and a government’s attitude towards its own produce can be instrumental in attracting lucrative export markets.

The TPA, meanwhile, is confident its experience in helping to get the escalator scrapped on beer last year will stand it in good stead. It also cannily recognises the importance of this Budget being both an election budget – in which voter-pleasing initiatives never go amiss – and coming six months before the Scottish vote on independence. Showing support for Scotland’s national drink – which accounts for 25% of the UK’s food and drink exports and is worth £20bn to the UK economy – may be an added incentive.

“We’re confident of a win - but when it might come into effect and how much it will be, is another matter,” one of its representatives told me.

According to the WSTA, meetings with the economic secretary to the Treasury Nicky Morgan had given it cause to be hopeful – she was “receptive”, if giving little away.

But whether George O is willing to give anything away will be evident in just under three weeks’ time. Until then, there’s time to pour yourself a stiff drink – just don't put it on a beer mat.

This article was first published in the Daily Bread newsletter by The Grocer

 

Cider with MPs

Cider makers and MPs were out in force last night as the All-Party Parliamentary Cider Group held its annual bash on the terrace of the House of Commons.

The mood of the night was largely one of celebration – the summer’s good weather has meant a good harvest and an increase in cider consumption – but there was a definite call to arms. Tory MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, who chairs the group, warned of “dark clouds on the horizon”, in the form of the duty escalator, which he said would put cider beyond the reach of ordinary folk.

“We have to get rid of it or it cider will hit the buffers in the future,” he declared.

Paul Bartlett, C&C Group's marketing director and the chairman of the National Association of Cider Makers (NACM), said it was important to keep up the pressure as the industry was investing heavily in planting orchards to boost production, as well as looking to make progress on the sustainability of the industry.

“There is a great deal of investment on the back of confidence in the industry,” he said. “It’s not through good luck that cider has been the best-performing drinks category – it is a result of an unstinting focus on product quality and the willingness of producers to invest in their businesses.”

Exports, he added, were the next big push – and there was a clear sign from both cider makers and trade representatives that they were gearing up for Anuga. “There are exciting opportunities on the horizon,” Bartlett said, pointing to markets in North America, Scandinavia and Australia. However, this could only happen if the tax regime in the UK remained stable – a critical point for the industry, he said.

However some argue that cider has been given an easy ride compared to other types of booze – and little mention was made of cider’s apparent ‘identify crisis’. The questions often bandied about within the industry as to what constitutes ‘real’ cider – whether fruit ciders count, what defines a British cider – went largely without discussion. Even the representatives from CAMRA seemed silent on this point, despite the real-ale organisation having a long ‘name and shame list’ of products on their website that they do not recognise as ‘real’ cider – many of them made by people in the assembled crowd.

Real or not, cider was also the principle theme on the drinks menu on the night – for those gasping for something other than apples, tap water the only available alternative.

This article was first published in the Daily Bread newsletter by The Grocer