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Fattorini steps down, with duty plea to Chancellor

Fattorini, who also moonlights as a Harpers columnist, has been heading up the London sales team of BBR’s wholesale wing, Fields, Morris & Verdin (FMV), but agreed to step down “as the business ensures it’s on a sustainable footing with an appropriate cost base”.

Quipping “I never let a good tragedy go to waste”, Fattorini, who also fronts the Wine & Spirit Trade Association-backed Wine Drinkers UK campaign for a halt to duty increases on wine, has written an open letter to the Chancellor calling for a halt to job loss-inducing pressures on the trade.

“Constant increases in duty are costing jobs in the wine business. I know because this week I lost mine. I urge you to cut wine duty in your budget so others don’t lose theirs,” writes Fattorini.

He adds: “…the unrelenting pressure of increased duty along with currency uncertainty and Brexit uncertainty, means great British businesses are now shedding good people doing good jobs to remain sustainable.”

With wine now the preferred drink of the nation, Fattorini reminded the new UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, that the last increase in duty led to a fall in Treasury tax receipts as consumers reined in spend.

Duty has gone up 40% in 10 years, with the UK now paying some 65% of all wine duties paid across EU countries, despite having only 9% of its population. 

Fattorini, who is currently finishing off filming for the next series of The Wine Show, describes his departure from the BBR/FMV fold as amicable, adding that despite “challenging times”, he is “on the look out for new opportunities” in the trade.

Fattorini's full letter to the Chancellor appears below:

Dear Chancellor

Constant increases in duty are costing jobs in the wine business. I know because this week I lost mine. I urge you to cut wine duty in your budget so others don’t lose theirs.

I’m not a bad wine merchant. I’ve led an extraordinary team who’ve achieved double-digit profit growth. Within a fantastic, well-run business too. But the unrelenting pressure of increased duty along with currency uncertainty and Brexit uncertainty, means great British businesses are now shedding good people doing good jobs to remain sustainable.

This affects you, and your department. The last increase in wine duty led directly to a fall in tax receipts. The UK’s 33 million wine drinkers are being priced out of the UK’s favourite alcoholic drink. And now the Treasury loses out on the income tax and National Insurance contributions of a wine merchant, and many others, during the weeks and months it takes to take us to (hopefully) find new jobs in different sectors.

A cut in wine tax will put a smile on the UK’s wine lovers. Especially the ten million on lower incomes or with young families who have been affected most by three decades of increases. It will also relieve the anguish, insomnia and dread caused to good people, doing good jobs, in good companies, like me, who are now losing their jobs to a counterproductive government policy.

Yours sincerely

Joe Fattorini