SIBA welcomes beer duty ‘hat trick’
Mike Benner MD
Mike Benner, managing director at the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) said, “This is a great day for British independent brewers, pubs and consumers.”
“We applaud the Chancellor’s decision to support British beer with this historic third cut in beer duty. It continues the momentum of the cuts in 2013 and 2014 and will boost growth, employment and investment in the independent brewing sector.”
“In SIBA’s Budget 2015 submission, we showed the positive impact of the first two cuts on our member brewers, who have invested the ‘penny off the pint’ in their businesses. The Government can be confident that this third concession will be put to the same good use by Britain’s independent brewers, bringing jobs and investment to hundreds of local economies around the country.”
According to preliminary findings from SIBA’s British Beer 2015 report, published tomorrow (19 March), production by SIBA brewers has risen by around 25% since the abolition of the Beer Duty Escalator in March 2013 and an estimated 1,600 jobs were created during 2013 and 2014, many of them in rural and deprived areas.
The two duty cuts and end of the escalator have reduced the average price of a pint of beer by 16p and saved over 1,000 pubs from closure. At the same time, Government revenues from beer duty were up by1.5% in the year ending June 2014.
