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Following yesterday’s announcement, here are a few more thoughts off the top of my head on the minimum pricing issue.
  • None of the people praising this will be personally affected by it
  • It’s widely imagined that it will only hit cheap, bottom-end products, but in fact it will affect most beer, cider and spirits, by volume, sold in the off-trade, and about a third of wine
  • It will seriously undermine the alcohol sales model of discount supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl
  • All the benefit will accrue to producers and retailers of alcohol, not government. It is in effect a legalised price-fixing ring. No wonder some brewers like Greene King and Tennent’s are foolishly supporting it
  • It will have a marked inflationary effect. If applied across the UK, it would add a few points to the headline inflation rate
  • It will create an unprecedented differential between prices for the same product in different parts of one country, with an inevitable surge in cross-border shopping and grey-market reselling
  • Will it be possible to apply it to purchases made from Internet vendors in England but delivered in Scotland?
  • It will eliminate all the cheap value brands that currently exist, and turn minimum price alcohol into a commodity product
  • And it will also push up prices higher up the scale as producers seek to maintain a price differential
  • Paradoxically, it may encourage alcohol producers to spend more on advertising as they can no longer differentiate products by price
  • If implemented in England, it would have a devastating effect on the farmhouse cider industry, much of which currently pays no duty and sells its products at the farm gate for well below 50p/unit. Many producers would probably abandon commercial sales entirely, or just sell to friends “off the books”
  • It will negate the effect of High Strength Beer Duty, as it will no longer be possible to sell weaker beers for a lower price per unit
  • It will lead to an increase in illegal distilling, with potentially serious health consequences. By supposedly addressing one health issue, you create another
    There will inevitably now be strong pressure to implement it in England



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