SALES of Buckfast and Tennent’s Super lager soared following the introduction of minimum unit pricing, a new report has found.
Buckfast sales shot up by 40.4% while Tennent’s Super similarly jumped by 67.6% in the year after minimum unit pricing (MUP) was introduced in 2018, according to Public health Scotland.
After the flagship MUP laws were introduced, the cost of Buckfast fell, dropping from 67p per unit in 2017-18 to 65p the year after.
The law makes retailers charge at least 50p per unit of alcohol, and is intended as a way of reducing the appeal of cheap high-strength drinks.
Dr Karl Ferguson, of the health body, said: “In the first 12 months after MUP was implemented we found that, especially for products that were priced below 50p per unit of alcohol prior to MUP, prices went up, the amount sold in larger container sizes went down, and sales also declined.
“We also found that, because of the price increase, even in instances where the volume of sales went down, the value of sales remained fairly constant or increased.”
Public Health Scotland said the average price of alcoholic drinks in shops increased north of the Border to a greater extent than in England and Wales over the same period.
Average prices in Scotland increased in the first year of the law from 60p per unit to 66p, while in England and Wales it grew from 60p to 61p.
Supermarket prices rose by almost 18%, from 56p to 66p per unit, while in convenience stores they went from 63p to 67p.
The steepest price rises were for strong ciders and pear ciders in convenience stores and own-brand cider and spirits in supermarkets, many of which were below 50p per unit before the law was introduced.
But the research found products which increased least in average price, like some pre-mixed drinks, or those that fell, like some fortified wines, appeared most likely to see increased sales.
Public Health Scotland looked at sales data between May 2016 and April 2019 as part of its investigation into the minimum pricing, which will expire unless MSPs vote to renew it in May next year.
Changes were also seen in sales across different container sizes, including reductions in the amount sold in larger single-item containers, especially for some ciders and own-brand spirits in bottles of one litre and over, Public Health Scotland said.
The amount of beer and cider sold in the largest multipacks also fell, while sales in smaller multipacks increased.
And, the research found, there was limited evidence that products were being introduced, discontinued or reformulated as a result of minimum pricing.
Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: “Increasing the price of alcohol is one of the most effective and cost-effective policy measures to reduce alcohol consumption and harm. This research shows that people in Scotland respond to price.
“We have changed what we buy and reduced how much we buy due to minimum unit pricing. As expected, we’ve seen the greatest decrease in sales of high strength, cheap products.
“In particular, some strong ciders have seen a 90% decrease in the natural volumes sold in convenience stores. We’ve also seen people switching to smaller size packs and lower strength products.
“The overall effect of these changes has been a reduction of 3.5% in total off-sales of alcohol, according to previous research.”
