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Well, a combination of economic recovery, good weather and two years of duty cuts has delivered unprecedentedly positive figures for beer sales, as reported in the BBPA’s Quarterly Beer Barometer. On an annualised basis, total beer sales have grown by 3.8% - the highest figure since the statistics began in 1997 – split between a rise in the off-trade of 8.6% and a fall in the on-trade of 0.6%, which in fact is the smallest annual drop during the entire period.
On the other hand, the tipping point when the off-trade decisively overtakes the on-trade seems to have arrived at last, with off-trade sales accounting for 50.15% of the total in the year to June 2014.
I await the predictable chorus of wailing and gnashing of teeth from the anti-drink lobby, who will no doubt be shrilly demanding a restoration of the duty escalator, minimum pricing and tougher licensing restrictions.


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