Mounting pressure is being placed on the government to ease the ‘financial fragility’ of the hospitality sector during its upcoming review of business rates, as businesses continue to suffer rising supply chain costs and runaway inflation.
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January saw the lowest rate of online retail growth ever at a slump of -24.4%, according to the IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index, which tracks the online sales performance for over 200 retailers. At category level, beer, wine and spirits fell even further, reaching an average of -26.6%.
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Chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed plans to simplify the current alcohol duty regime during yesterday’s Budget, when it was revealed that the Treasury would be adopting a new principle of “the stronger the drink, the higher the rate”.
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Today’s Budget announcement included a year-long cut to business rates for the leisure and retail industry, meaning pubs, restaurants and bars will pay 50% less for 12 months.
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A major new campaign – #VATsEnough – is calling on the Chancellor Rishi Sunak to make the 12.5% VAT rate permanent for hospitality and tourism.
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Following the recent call from The Wine & Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) for the Treasury to extend the hospitality VAT reduction, leading trade bodies from the hospitality and tourism sector have aligned to add their voice to the plea.
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Nearly of half (44%) of adults in England have visited pubs, bars and restaurants since they re-opened for outdoor service on the 12 April, beating last year’s rate of return to hospitality following the easing of restrictions after the first lockdown.
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Harpers teamed up with WinesDirect for its third annual WinesDirect Awards. Voted for purely by consumers, the awards celebrate supermarkets, wine merchants and brands in the beers, wines and spirits industry.
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Every year at the end of my tour of Argentina, I sit down with Dr Nicolas Catena of Bodega Catena Zapata. He wants to talk about wine – new bodegas and regions, the latest vintage – while I want to talk about economics, his speciality. Before he became one of the leading figures in the Argentinian wine industry, Catena was a top academic and is still enormously perceptive.
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