E-Malt.com News article: UK: Beer sales dropped to the lowest mark since 1975

UK beer sales have fallen through the 5 billion litre mark for the first time since 1975 as the consumer downturn and smoking ban continue to hit Britain's pubs and brewers, The Telegraph posted on June 22.

News that annual beer sales have slipped below 50m hectolitres will come as a further blow to an industry already suffering as pubs go out of business and brewers are forced to consolidate.

Figures released to the brewing industry by the British Beer and Pub Association, and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, show total UK beer sales fell 1.7 per cent in the year to the end of April.

The effect of the decline in consumption, combined with rising utility and commodity costs, an increase in beer duty, and the impact of the consumer downturn and smoking ban is having a catastrophic impact on Britain's pubs.

Pub closures are running at 27 a week, according to the BBPA, amounting to some 1,200 that have been forced out of business over the last 12 months.

Nick Bish, chief executive of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, which counts 15,000 UK pubs among its members, said: "This is a bell-weather of the economic situation where you have a perfect storm of the smoking ban, credit crisis and loss of consumer confidence."

The biggest decline in beer consumption came in the premium lager segment where sales fell 2 per cent year on year.

Brands including Stella Artois have suffered marked declines - off-trade sales of the brand are down 7 per cent in the year to May according to market research company Nielsen - in contrast to select import brands such as Peroni Nastro Azzurro which have seen sales climb sharply.

The BBPA sent a letter to Chancellor Alistair Darling last November ahead of the duty hike in which it claimed brewers earn just 0.7p profit on each pint they sell, while the Treasury receives 33p. The trade body said the profits of the major brewers in the UK had fallen 78 per cent between 2004 and 2006.

That came as the volume of beer sold through pubs hit its lowest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s, with sales in the whole of the UK beer market down by 22 per cent since 1979.

In this year's Budget the Government raised duty on a pint of beer by 4p, and pushed through a 55p rise on spirits and a 14p increase on a bottle of wine.


25 June, 2008