THERE is a compelling need to tackle the booze culture in Scotland, but it must be done appropriately.
As the legal challenges to minimum pricing show, the drinks industry is extremely concerned about its implications, particularly for the export market. From the domestic perspective, there is concern that rather than helping redress the imbalance between on and off-sales, it may only serve to increase profits for supermarkets.
Speaking at our Hospitality & Leisure Forum earlier this month, Paul Waterston, head of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, revealed that 70 per cent of alcohol sales in Scotland are off-sales and, of that, 90 per cent are sold by supermarkets. One way to tackle the issue of problem drinking would be to prevent the sale of alcohol as a loss leader by supermarkets which can afford to sell it as low as 14p per unit, against £1.30 offered by the on-sales trade.
It’s clearly not practical to try to introduce Prohibition-type measures, but the Scottish Government needs to consider how to change people’s attitudes to drink.
One step would be to seek to reverse the trend of “pre-loading”. Declining disposable incomes and increasingly cheap off-sales booze offers have created an environment where much drink is consumed prior to frequenting pubs and bars. To reverse recent legislation and re-introduce the happy hour would be a retrograde step. But the playing field should be levelled. Support needs to be given to encouraging alcohol to be consumed in the more regulated environment of the pub or bar.
In addition to addressing the issue of pre-loading, this would help these businesses through the current difficult trading patch, which has led to them closing at the rate of five per week in Scotland.
We are all used to the deals now available on beers, wines and spirits; and it is now commonplace to have an alcoholic drink every evening of the week in a way that was unheard of 20 years ago. Perhaps the current debate will allow the opportunity for further consultation by the Scottish Government with all sectors involved in the sale of alcohol in order to achieve a common approach to tackling the abuse of alcohol.
• Katie Corrigan is head of hospitality and leisure at Tods Murray.