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05/02/2010

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Weekly alcohol headlines

Minimum price 'worth £90m to drinks industry'

Supermarkets and drink manufacturers would enjoy a £90m-a-year windfall from the introduction of minimum alcohol pricing, according to a government-commissioned study. The research, by academics at Sheffield University, concluded that a proposed 40p per unit minimum charge would prove lucrative for supermarkets, off-licences and drinks companies. While Scottish ministers seized on the paper's other findings that the charge would save 210 lives a year and £1 billion on health and social costs over a decade, Labour has accused the Scottish government of ignoring the financial benefits to the drinks industry.
Source: The Sunday Times - 31/01/10


TV product placement: Bradshaw bans 'nasties'

The government's plans to allow products to be marketed through television programmes have watered down after opposition from cabinet ministers who warned they could worsen problems such as obesity. TV producers will not be allowed to use any branded alcohol, junk food or gambling when making programmes. The climb down comes after the Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, and the Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, lobbied against aspects of proposals backed by the Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw, to allow product placement on TV for the first time. Burnham and Benn said unfettered freedom to advertise products in this way could increase problems such as obesity and alcohol-related harm.
Source: The Guardian - 04/02/10

Plan's dram right

Bosses at a whisky firm are backing government plans for minimum pricing - because they reckon cut-price promotions in supermarkets are killing the drinks industry. Andrew Symington, owner of Edradour distillery in Perthshire, said: "You can buy alcohol in supermarkets for less than bottled water."
Source: The Sunday Mail - 31/01/10