Former F1 World Champion Jody Scheckter ends legal battle over ale packaging

25 March 2013 by
Former F1 World Champion Jody Scheckter ends legal battle over ale packaging

Former F1 World Champion Jody Scheckter has ended a legal battle against a drinks industry watchdog which ruled that beer produced at his farm broke rules on appealing to children.

The Portman Group ruled that the packaging of Laverstoke Park Farm's organic ale, featuring a cartoon image of Mr Laverstoke, "breached alcohol responsibility rules for using drawing with particular appeal to young children to market alcoholic drinks".

The watchdog investigated the product after receiving one complaint about its "childish design".

Following a legal battle that cost Scheckter £30,000, he has now ended the fight against the Portman Group but has vowed to continue to sell the beer as changing its ale and lager label was "not a viable option".

"We have been selling Laverstoke Park beer and ale for over five years. During that time we have only had one single complaint, this was received by the Portman Group," Scheckter said.

"It is not just the cost of the change [it would cost the farm tens of thousands of pounds in rebranding] but the loss of our brand identity in having our iconic Mr Laverstoke taken off the bottle."

Scheckter went on to say that he disagreed with the ruling, adding he contested that teenagers would find the "branding hip or trendy enough to purchase" the product.

He added: "I have had to waste a huge amount of time and money on this whole mess and I am angry that a body with no legislative power can just come along and make arbitrary decisions that we, a small producer, are then left with the consequences of, in my opinion, ill-informed and unjustified views."

Following its investigation the Portman Group set a deadline of 7 January for stores to consider stopping the sale of the Laverstoke ale. The deadline was extended indefinitely pending legal action and is expected to be announced shortly.

"If the multiples stop selling our beer as a consequence, I respect and accept their position," Scheckter said.

The Portman Group, which is supported by the UK´s leading drinks producers, is concerned solely with the social responsibility issues surrounding alcohol. It has no legislative powers.

Consumers encouraged to complain against irresponsible drinks products >>

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking