Beer sales down one percent in 2016
Sales of beer declined slightly in 2016, prompting renewed calls from the industry for a one penny cut in beer duty in the Budget on 8 March 2017. The drop still means that 78 million fewer pints of beer were sold in 2016 compared with the previous year, according to figures released by the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), an industry body.
Overall, however, sales in the past three years have stabilised after years of sharp decline, says the BBPA, a trend which was greatly helped by three cuts of one penny each in beer duty from 2013 to 2015, and a freeze last year.
Tax cuts, which increased confidence and investment in the sector, have been accompanied by campaigns such as ‘There’s a Beer for That’, promoting the beer category as a whole, with widespread backing by the industry through ‘Britain’s Beer Alliance’.
Prior to 2013, there was a slump of 14 percent in sales under the controversial beer duty escalator, when a tax hike of 42 percent from 2008 to 2013 was accompanied by 58,000 job losses and 7,000 pub closures.
In order to safeguard jobs, pubs and investment, the current trends make it essential that the Government does not revert to beer tax hikes, as currently planned, in the Budget on 8 March 2017, says the BBPA.
