Caterer and Hotelkeeper – 6735
Beer studyquestions duty
the latest Datamonitor study on the European beer market is further evidence of the unfairly high level of duty on beer in the UK. Although UK per capita expenditure on beer is the highest in Europe, our per capita consumption is third after Germany and Belgium.
The study shows that in 1993 we spent the equivalent of US$338 (£230) per head compared with $185 (£125) in Belgium and $180 (£122) in Germany. Germany, on the other hand, consumed 153 litres per head in 1993 and Belgium 115.9 litres compared with 112.7 litres in the UK.
The UK is the highest yielding market for beer with a market value of $19.5b in 1993. This is followed by Germany at $14.5b. Although, as the recent MarketLine International report showed (Liquid Assets, 21 April), there was a decline in beer sales of 3% last year against the previous year, the value of the UK market grew as a whole by 3.5% between 1989 and 1993. The European market as whole grew by 4.4% to a total value of $65.5b in 1993.
Growth is expected to be slower in the period 1993-1998, averaging 1.5% for Europe as a whole. UK growth is expected to be no more than 0.6% in the period.
