We’re all used to seeing drinks price go up and down, be it inflation or market trends, but on August 1st something happened that will have an effect on all of our favourite tipples – alcohol duty changes. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was at the Great British Beer Festival promoting these changes, the most significant of their kind for over a century… so what’s the long and short of it?
Well, there are winners and losers but probably more in the latter camp, the biggest of which is sadly wine. Drinks Business have been running the numbers on this, and still wine will increase in duty by an average of 20% - that’s from £2.23 to £2.67 on a 12.5%ABV 750ml bottle.
Plenty of others failed to escape the hike too, with Sherry and Port up 44% (around a £1 increase on average bottles), vodka up 10%, canned beer up 10% and canned cider up 8%. Taking the average alcohol percentage and size of these drinks, the duty cost has increased from as much as £1.29 for port, to as little a 1p for canned cider.
Breweries are trying to dodge these changes however, in a process dubbed ‘drinkflation’. Essentially, various well-known beers like Foster’s (4% to 3.7%), Old Speckled Henn (5% to 4.85%) and Bishop Finger (5.4% to 5.2%) are cutting down on the booze to avoid the alcohol duty hit. Colin Angus of the University of Sheffield calculated that if all breweries cut alcohol content by 0.3% then the total saving would be £250 million, so expect to see more names following suit.
It isn’t all bad news, however. The increasingly popular RTDs (Ready to Drinks) like G&T have decreased by 14%, sparkling wine is down 7%, cream liqueur decreases 3% and the Chancellor’s draught relief means a 1p cut for draught cider, whilst beer stays the same.
On the whole, we’re talking about pennies here, but they do of course add up for both consumers and producers, and let’s not forget that if you’re a keen sherry, port, or wine drinker then the difference will be visible.
Seeking value has never been more important then, so check out the various guides across our website offering insight into bottles of your favourite drinks that punch above their price point.