Only cheapest booze hit by pricing plans

Published on Wednesday 4 November 2009 21:14

A SCOTTISH Government survey of drink prices has shown that minimum pricing will target cheap, high-strength products while leaving others untouched.

For example, a bottle of the Famous Grouse, one of the cheapest branded whiskies on the supermarket shelves, would stay at 12, because the minimum price for a bottle containing drinks at 40 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV) is set at 11.20.

Those whiskies which would increase to that level would be supermarket brands such as Asda's High Commissioner, which would go up from 8.98 to 11.20.

Other spirits, such as cheap vodka, would also rise in price – for example, from the current 6.98 to a minimum of 10.50.

Bottles of strong cider would be among the hardest hit by the policy.

A Tesco two-litre bottle of value dry cider, with 4.2 per cent alcohol, currently sells at 1.21, but would increase to 3.36, a rise of 177 per cent. Wine would be largely untouched.