London spirit distilleries struggling  with government’s hike in alcohol duty - video Dailymotion

Evening Standard

Spirit distilleries in London say they are being “crushed” and “discriminated against” by the government’s hike in alcohol duty, which has been on the rise since 2023

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00:00London spirit distilleries say they are being crushed and discriminated against

00:03by the government's hike in alcohol duty, which has been on the rise since 2023.

00:08Here in North London, owners and co-founders of Sacred Spirits,

00:11Hilary Whitney and Ian Hart, have been distilling gin, vermouth and other spirits since 2008.

00:16First from Ian's Kitchen and now from their shop in Highgate.

00:19Along with the UK Spirit Alliance, they are now calling for the freeze of excise duty.

00:23The government sort of considers that alcohol, business or spirits, aren't an everyday essential

00:30and so that's a very easy way to collect some money.

00:34Our duty rates are the highest across Europe, about 70% of what you pay for a bottle of gin goes the exchequer.

00:41Unlike beer, where small producers get a big tax break, spirits don't, or distillers don't.

00:47A smaller producer typically has got loans, family money up to their neck in debt

00:54and therefore something goes wrong in the UK economy, it tends to put people out of business

00:59and that is happening a lot.

01:00A lot of our customers, pubs and restaurants are suffering dramatically lower levels of business.

01:06Pubs are empty, restaurants are empty, not all of them, but a lot of them.

01:10But in fact, what happens is that it has such an impact on businesses, pubs and bars are going out of,

01:17we have put our prices up, which goes on to the pubs and bars

01:22and then of course they have put their prices up and customers just can't afford it,

01:27they don't go to the spaces.

01:28We need people to spend more money and they won't do it if it's really expensive.

01:32Whilst the spirits sector contributes £13 billion to the UK economy,

01:36is now being penalised and priced out, leaving the future of London's small distilleries in the balance.

London spirit distilleries struggling with government’s hike in alcohol duty

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