Subscriber login Close [x]
remember me
You are not logged in.

Hard hitting business facts and data to be at the heart of WSTA's Be Fair George campaign

Published:  13 December, 2013

The Wine & Spirits Trade Association is to use exclusive research and data to help spearhead its new "Be Fair George" campaign to persuade the government to scrap the duty escalator on wine and spirits in next year's budget.

The Wine & Spirits Trade Association is to use exclusive research and data to help spearhead its new "Be Fair George" campaign to persuade the government to scrap the duty escalator on wine and spirits in next year's budget.


Research and data will be a key part of the launch of its new national consumer and media campaign that plays on the Be Fair George tag line aimed at Chancellor George Osborne. 

The WSTA is to call on its members and the trade to use hard facts and figures to help make the case for the government to extend its decision to halt the duty escalator on beer to wine and spirits. 

It believes it can use industry data to make the business as well as economic case that the duty escalator is endangering what should be celebrated as a "great British industry" explained chief executive Miles Beale.

Key data to be used in the Be Fair George campaign over the coming months up to the budget include the following headline figures: 

* UK alcohol industry pays £17 billion in tax a year. The equivalent of £329 per person, per year. 

* wine and spirits industry is worth £20 billion annually to the British economy

* the UK alcohol industry supports nearly 2 million jobs

* 650,000 people are employed in production and retailing of alcohol in the UK

* 1.1 million UK jobs are supported on the wider economy by wine and spirits industry

House of Commons

* the UK accounts for 18% of people employed in the spirits sector across Europe - highest across all Member states

* the UK accounts for 38.8% of all duty paid in the EU - more then France, Germany, Spain and Italy combined

* wine and spirits is worth £9.8 billion to on-trade outlets 

* wine and spirits account for 42% of sales of all products in the on-trade

* since alcohol duty escalator introduced in 2008 wine taxation has gone up by 50%

* spirits taxation has gone up by 44%

* tax on wine and spirits has gone up by 25% under the current government

* the 2013 Budget increased tax burden on restaurants and bars by over £34million 

Full details on how the trade and its members can use these figures will be revealed next week when the WSTA goes live with a consumer website outlining its campaign and how drinkers can get involved. 

Keywords: