Wine sales hit hardest by Scottish multibuy ban

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 05 January, 2015

Since Scotland introduced a ban on multi-buy alcohol deals in the off-trade in October 2011, wine sales have been hardest hit, dropping 4.6% in the year following implementation.

According to a report from the University of Glasgow, Evaluating the impact of the Alcohol Act on off-trade alcohol sales: a natural experiment in Scotland, researchers found that the overall 4.3% decline in sales was driven by falling wine and RTD sales.

"While off-trade sales fell across all drink types in both geographies [England & Wales and Scotland] after the Alcohol Act, there was a notable change in wine sales in Scotland, which had increased by 0.7% in the 52-week period pre-implementation, but fell by 4.6% in the 52-week period post-implementation. This was not observed in England & Wales, where the percentage change in wine was similar before (?3.0%) and after (?3.2%) the Scottish legislation."

The Alcohol Act brought in a raft of new regulations restricting the sale of alcohol - limiting promotions to a specific area in-store as well as the ban on quantity-based discounts such as three for two or three for £10 - popular on wine. But straight discounting is still allowed.

The report shows "an average of 50% of all off-trade alcohol sales in Scotland in the year after the ban was introduced was on promotion". This was shown to include straight discounting, enabling consumers to purchase individual alcohol products for the same price as they had been on promotion.

Speaking six months after the ban took effect in Scotland, Nielsen predicted the ban would have a worse long-term impact on wine sales than beers and spirits - which these figures now support.

Nielsen analyst Gavin Humphreys said in April 2012 that it would be "extremely abnormal for consumers to buy three wines at £3.33 - you just don't need to".

The report states that the "intention was to restrict incentives encouraging consumers to purchase more alcohol than they may otherwise have bought, and thereby reduce consumption". It concludes that the "legislation to ban alcohol discounting appears to be an important policy in the mix to reduce population alcohol consumption levels".

The UK government is observing the effects of Scotland's Alcohol Act while also waiting for an EU ruling on its proposed minimum unit price for alcohol before implementing any new rules south of the border.

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