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Apples harvested at a traditional cider orchard in Devon.
Apples harvested at a traditional cider orchard in Devon. Photograph: Guy Harrop/Alamy
Apples harvested at a traditional cider orchard in Devon. Photograph: Guy Harrop/Alamy

Traditional cider makers say tax on strong brands will hurt their business

This article is more than 6 years old

Duty band for super-strength white cider and perry will penalise us, warn artisans

Traditional cider makers have warned they will be unfairly penalised by a tax on super-strength cider, as the rest of the drinks industry toasted the budget freeze on alcohol duty.

The chancellor unveiled plans, including a new duty band on still cider and perry with an alcohol content between 6.9% and 7.5%, in a move the Treasury said was aimed at “white cider”.

White cider is often cited as a particular problem for alcoholics and homeless people because it is cheap but strong. But traditional cider makers, some with decades of history in the craft, warned that they would be caught up in legislation that might not even have the desired effect.

Arfur Daley, of the family-run Gwatkin Cider, in Herefordshire, said: “It won’t affect the larger cider makers. But the more artisanal cider makers it will affect. I’d like to see an exception if you’re using whole fruit. Larger cider makers use concentrate, but everything we make is from the apples.”

Neil Worley, managing director of Worley’s Cider, in Somerset, said that while small producers could suffer, white cider firms could still sell cheap high-strength drink. “They will just reformulate to 6.9%,” he said. “At £3.50 a bottle the price would be 15.5p a unit and at 6.9% it’s 16.9p per unit, so the difference is negligible.”

But the plans also drew criticism from larger white cider firms, such as Aston Manor Cider, whose 7.5% Frosty Jack’s brand costs £3.59 for a three-litre bottle in the shop Iceland. A spokesperson said the duty rise had no merit. “What this action will mean is that the vast majority of white cider consumers – not the chancellor and his friends perhaps – will be disproportionately penalised,” the spokesperson said.

The budget also included measures which pubs and alcohol firms said would be worth more than £400m a year to them and their customers. A freeze on alcohol duty will save beer drinkers £117m a year, according to the British Beer & Pubs Association, while the Wine and Spirits Trade Association said its members would save £247m. The measure means that the Treasury will forgo nearly £1.2bn in alcohol duty by 2023.

Pubs hit by a rise in business rates will get a £1,000 discount extended for another year, a move saving them about £20m in all, according to the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers. The measure for calculating business rate increases will change from the RPI measure of inflation to CPI, which the association said would save pubs £100m over four years.

More on this story

More on this story

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  • Budget 2017: Hammond masks gloomy outlook with stamp duty cut

  • Hammond to borrow extra £90bn after lower productivity forecast

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  • 'Forget stamp duty, we need a pay rise' – people respond to the budget

  • Hammond boosts housing and NHS spending as growth forecasts are slashed

  • Cough sweets, Clarkson and booze: Hammond brings out budget jokes

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