UK distillery numbers jump as craft gin popularity booms March 16, 2020 The number of distilleries in the UK has surged as craft gin continues to grow in popularity, according to the latest research. Distilleries jumped 20 per cent to 246 over the last year, up from 205 the previous year, as the UK gin industry toasted a nine per cent increase in export sales to £672m [...]
Budget 2020: Beer duty increase scrapped March 11, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced today that he will scrap the planned beer duty increase in a move to protect pubs. He also announced that duty will be frozen on wine and cider, and said that the business rates discount for pubs will increase from £1,000 to £5,000. Sunak said: “I’m also pleased to announced that [...]
Drinking Formula 1 fizz in Trento, Italy November 29, 2022 The curtain has fallen on the 2022 F1 season, and on the podium at the Abu Dhabi finale world champion Max Verstappen toasted runners-up Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez with non-alcoholic rose water. Where’s the party in that, you ask? Due to the same alcohol laws that are stifling celebrations for us boozy Brits at [...]
Euro 2020: Less than one in three Brits plan to watch the football in a pub June 11, 2021 Less than a third of Brits plan to watch the Euro 2020 football tournament in a pub over the coming weeks despite the easing of restrictions, according to a new survey. Boozers are gearing up for a major boost to business as fans flock to their local for the delayed footie extravaganza. Yet pubs may [...]
How to share a glass of pet-friendly plonk with your cat or dog August 25, 2021 Always a nation of cat and dog lovers, lockdown has made many of us absolutely barking when it comes to our pets. If on any of those long, lonely isolation nights you wished you could share a nice glass of Riesling with Rover or a Frascati with Felix, those prayers have, somehow, been answered. food In [...]
Ocado retains crown as Britain’s fastest-growing supermarket February 4, 2020 Ocado has retained its position as Britain’s fastest growing supermarket, with the online grocer achieving its quickest growth in the North of England. Ocado’s overall sales grew 11.2 per cent year-on-year during the quarter, with its market share rising 0.2 percentage points, according to data from Kantar. While over half of the grocer’s sales come [...]
Calorie labelling to be mandatory for large hospitality businesses from April 2022 May 12, 2021 The government has confirmed it will bring in mandatory calorie labelling for tens of thousands of English restaurants, pubs and cafes from April 2022. The Department of Health announced today that legislation will be brought forward to force all “out-of-home food businesses” with more than 250 staff to display calorie information for all non-prepacked food [...]
Beat Dry January with booze-free alternatives, from fizzy tea to CBD January 6, 2021 Despite this being the most miserable January in living memory (™), droves of us are keen to give up even more of life’s basic pleasures. This is set to be the most widely-practiced Dry January yet, with various unscientific surveys claiming that anywhere between 6.5m UK adults (up from 3.9m last year) to half of [...]
No-and-low alcohol spirits are here to stay, so do it in style January 29, 2021 Dry January has always been a challenge, but 2021 has made going sans alcohol even harder. If you have stuck with it this far – through Zoom meetings, home-schooling, and an inescapable sense of existential dread – then you deserve a treat in this final weekend of the month. We’re already well-versed in low- or [...]
Ed Warner: ECB may buck financial trends but must turn playing claims into reality May 26, 2022 Fourteen million people participate in cricket in England and Wales. Yep, you read that right! How do we know that a quarter of the population play, attend or follow the sport? Because the ECB told us so last week in its annual report. Looks like the governing body has adopted a Westminster approach to big [...]