So the chancellor has ignored the pleas of the industry, consumers and fellow MPs and gone ahead with above inflation rise on beer tax.
http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2009/04/22/327267/budget-beer-tax-rise-signals-death-warrant-for-uk.html
http://www.kitchenrat.com/2009/04/breaking-news-darling-raises-b.html
What do you think?
Here's a neat and timely response to the budget from the Priory Inn, Tetbury (cut and pasted from press release):
The Priory Inn, Tetbury and a local potter have found a way of beating the Chancellor’s 2009 budget and the endless financial challenges faced by the restaurant world. The Cotswold restaurant is offering its customers a great deal on wine whilst supporting its local economy at the same time! The Priory Inn has taken a leaf out of a typical French bistro’s books and is serving its house wine in hand-thrown, locally crafted pichets – a solution that tastes great, costs less for customers, supports a local business and is eco-efficient.
The Priory Inn’s Owner and Director Dave Kelly said “In the last 12 months, our industry has experienced immense hurdles to success: as of today, our Government has increased alcohol duty by 20% over the last 12 months; our wine suppliers have increased their costs by around 15% (as a result of escalating costs of transport and raw materials, the weak pound, and a decrease in crop yields); and we are experiencing an unprecedented squeeze on consumers’ finances.”
“However, our bar figures are showing an increase in sales of 15% this year over last – and one of the key changes we have introduced is serving our house wine in locally made pichets (jugs without handles). This brings a great many benefits: an eco-benefit (reducing the number of bottles that we serve house wine in by 70% as we can now buy in larger 2 litre bottles); a local benefit (buying hand-crafted, high quality pichets from a small family potter just 6 miles away from Tetbury); and a customer benefit (reducing the price of 75cl of wine from £14.00 to £12.75 – even after accounting for all the financial squeezes).”