UK beer sales rise for the first time in 10 years
A decade-long decline for beer sales in the UK has finally come to an end, with boozy Brits taking advantage of tax cuts bought in over the last two years.
The British Beer and Pub Association's (BBPA) 'Beer Barometer' showed beer sales jumped 1.3 per cent last year. And chancellor George Osborne – who announced a second one pence cut to beer duty as part of his 2014 budget – is largely to thank for this.
Beer sales in pubs also began to stabilise, and last year's 0.8 per cent decrease was the smallest in 19 years. Seven in every ten pub drinks sold is beer making them extremely reliant on the so-called "nectar."
Off-licenses and supermarkets continued to prove popular – as people "pre-loaded", boozed at home or simply drank with their dinners – and a 3.5 per cent spike meant off-trade sales overtook on-trade sales for the first time ever.
