Buyer’s Spotlight: The Battles to Come
Published: 18 February, 2025
Jason Millar on why the trade needs to get behind the WSTA-led wine duty campaign.
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Soapbox: Cambridge's Hal Wilson scrutinises government duty forecasts
Published: 11 February, 2025
The government won’t talk to the trade about its assumptions on duty receipts because it gets them from the OBR. The OBR won’t talk to the trade about its assumptions on duty receipts because its only customer is the government. You couldn’t make it up.
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UKSA writes letter to Chancellor bemoaning gin duty rises
Published: 31 January, 2025
The UK Spirits Alliance (UKSA), representing 300 distillers, has written a letter (read below) to Rachel Reeves urging her to champion the gin trade rather than burden it with further duty rises this February.
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Soapbox: Miles Beale looks beyond duty
Published: 23 January, 2025
With the end of duty easement now nigh-on a certainty, in the second of our two-parter the WSTA’s Miles Beale swings the focus on to other major issues that lie ahead.
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Insights: Beyond the duty easement
Published: 15 January, 2025
Drawn from our turn-of-year Looking Back, Forging Ahead series, we round up suppliers’ comments ahead of the end of duty easement on 1 February.
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SWA highlights daily loss for HMRC of £500,000 duty
Published: 14 January, 2025
SWA chief executive has claimed the industry is “not crying wolf” over the impact of the double-digit rise in spirit duty since August 2023. According to Treasury figures, the revenue from spirits duty fell by £255m for the period running 1 August 2023 to 30 November 2024, which equates to an eye-watering half a million-pound loss in revenue every day for HMRC.
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Insights: Taxing times ahead
Published: 13 December, 2024
With the aim of providing clarity for the trade, James Bayley once again highlights what’s coming down the line.
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South African government proposes 'drastic excise tax increases' on wine
Published: 27 November, 2024
The government of South Africa has published a policy review on the taxation of alcoholic beverages, with plans to increase excise tax in the forthcoming 2025 Budget.
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Nick Gillett: Aiming high with no & low
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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Budget review: A ‘horrific’ state of affairs for the trade
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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Trade unites behind WSTA to petition incoming government on duty easement
Published: 03 July, 2024
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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WSTA takes aim at Gareth Davies on duty
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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Alcohol duty frozen till February 2025
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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WSTA makes ‘last-ditch plea’ for duty cut
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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Distillers and bar owners call on chancellor to cut alcohol duty
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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Soapbox: Stirring up a duty storm
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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Harpers indies survey reveals widespread price rises
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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Scotch whisky maintains export boom
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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Indies Survey: What’s the deal with duty?
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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Indies short-changed in government duty consultation
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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