A BREWER at Tisbury has condemned supermarket bargain booze offers and said they are wrecking the local pub industry and encouraging irresponsible drinking.

The country’s main supermarkets are in a price war this Christmas selling crates of beer at knock-down prices to tempt customers into their stores.

Morrisons is selling premium lager at £9 a case (18 bottles), Sainsbury’s at £9 a case (20 cans), Asda at £10.18 a case (20 bottles), and Tesco at £11.74 a case (20 bottles).

In some cases, it works out at about 35 pence per unit of alcohol, about 80 pence a pint.

Alasdair Large, who is head of the Keystone Brewery at Berwick St Leonard near Tisbury, says this “irresponsible” sale of alcohol is contributing to the country’s binge drinking culture and drawing regulars away from their community pubs, which are closing at an alarming rate.

While supermarkets sell drinks at a loss, publicans have had to put up prices due to increases in alcohol duty as government attempts to curb binge drinking.

Beer sales are at their lowest level since the 1930s. Today, 14 million less pints are bought a day than in 1979 yet seven million more pints a day are sold in supermarkets since the same year.

Mr Large’s small brewery sells quality cask ale to pubs and bottle beers to shops and direct to the public. His trade price for cask beer is about 34 pence per unit of alcohol with a retail price special offer coming in at 80 pence per unit of alcohol for bottled beer.

“The cask beer will be drunk in a managed pub environment where the landlord’s livelihood is dependent on the responsible sale of alcohol, the price reflects the true cost of manufacture, distribution, and tax of a quality local product,” he said.

He believes that booze will become even cheaper if the situation is not brought under control. 

“The result will be uncontrolled cheap drinking, fewer pubs, and more social problems,” he added. 

Mr Large is supporting a campaign led by the industry publication The Publican calling on government for a minimum price for alcohol to be imposed on the drinks industry, which is being used in some states in Canada.

The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) is backing the Make it the Minimum campaign, also supported by the Campaign for Real Ale and the Federation of Licensed Victuallers’ Associations, that asks for a 50 pence minimum on a unit of alcohol.

Julian Growcock, SIBA chief executive, said the supermarket offers were so low last Christmas that a can of own brand beer was cheaper than a bottle of water. Some large cheap bottles of cider can be as low as 10 pence per unit of alcohol.

“Supermarkets shouldn’t be selling what is a legal drug as cheap as that,” he said.

“The Government’s policies are making things worse. They are raising duty to cut alcohol consumption so a publican has no option but to sell a more expensive product. Supermarkets do not do that. They have such a wide range of goods that they can use drink as a loss leader to tempt customers to do their Christmas shopping. When duty goes up, people go to the cheaper end of the market.

“It’s always been cheaper to buy from supermarkets than pubs as it is accepted that you buy a little bit more than drink itself in a pub as you get the social atmosphere and a responsible, controlled environment, which is how alcohol should be enjoyed.

“As a drinks and brewing industry we encourage responsible retailing. We don’t like the principle of government intervention as there has been so much interference over duty but no single supermarket is going to take action on its own and they are not allowed to group together. It will send a message of responsibility. If it’s 50 pence a unit, a pint will be £1, surely that’s cheap enough.”

In October, Hall & Woodhouse brewery boss David Woodhouse also warned that tax and supermarket undercutting were taking their toll on pubs and that if the situation continued, one in five pubs could close in the next few years. The Royal Oak at Motcombe is one of the latest to close and other pubs across the area are constantly changing hands. 

Rosanna Holmes