WSTA calls on Labour MPs to champion gin industry

By Lisa Riley

Published: 26 September, 2017

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) last night called on Labour MPs to champion the booming British gin industry at its 'Fringe' event.

At the event, which formed part of the Labour Party Conference that takes place in Brighton this week, the WSTA urged MPs to support the UK wine and spirit industry, with a particular focus on the booming gin category.

To help the gin boom go global, total UK sales topped £1.2bn (44.6 million bottles) in the past 12 months (WSTA), chief executive Miles Beale encouraged Labour MPS to stand up for local SMEs.

“Our aim is to make sure all politicians are supporting British gin and give our great spirit makers their full backing," he said, pointing to Brighton Gin as a “fantastic example” of an SME with “huge ambitions” to expand both at home and abroad.

Companies were however “constantly held back by the UK’s excessively high duty rates”, making it harder to invest and take advantage of new opportunities overseas, he added.

The quintessentially British spirit has become the stand out success story when it comes to growth in the spirits category and continues to smash record sales both at home and abroad.

In the past year, off-trade gin sales broke the £500 million barrier for the first time, up £200 million since 2012, according to the latest WSTA data released earlier this month.

This is the equivalent of 36.3m bottles sold, up nearly half a million bottles on last year.

Across the on-trade, 8.3 million bottles were sold in the on-trade in the on-trade, worth £687m.

In addition, the UK hit its largest ever gin exports in 2016 worth £474m, making it the world’s seventh most valuable food and drink export, with sales now worth more than beef and cereals, said Beale.

And, the party appears to be far from over with the latest IWSR Forecast Report projecting gin to grow by 37.2% by 2021.

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