'Wine and Spirits Trade Association calls for duty freeze'

The cost of a tipple is set to soar by about 10 per cent because of poor grape harvests and increasing prices for raw ingredients, a leading trade body has warned. The Wine and Spirit Trade Association said drinks manufacturers and wine producers would no longer be able to absorb rising energy and transport costs as well as inflation in the price of grapes, molasses and grain. The warning comes in a submission to the Treasury, requesting a freeze on wine and spirit duty in the March budget. - Sunday Times​

Thousands of Scots face a booze drought as huge hikes in licence fees force village off-sales to close. Smaller shopkeepers claim they cannot afford to pay the crippling price hike from £86 to £1,240 imposed by Holyrood last week. And it is feared that local pubs could go to the wall. Pub chains face charges of up to £3,800 under the plans approved by the Parliament's justice committee last week. - Sunday Mail​

Property tycoon and Laurel Pub Company owner Robert Tchenguiz must rue the day he bought into SCI Entertainment, Britain's biggest computer game company and owner of Tomb Raider's Lara Croft. Tchenguiz built a 22 per cent stake in SCI for between 480p and 500p a share towards the end of 2005, and he is said to have become very close to the company's former management - chief executive Jane Cavanagh and her husband, the managing director Bill Ennis. But the management team has now been ousted and a share slide means he is sitting on a £40m loss. - Independent On Sunday​

Dougal Sharp, the creator of the niche Edinburgh beer Innis & Gunn, has taken control of the company after buying out William Grant's 90 per cent stake in the brewer. Sharp, a former head brewer at the Caledonian Brewery which was founded by his father Russell, has vowed to implement an aggressive overseas expansion drive to tap into the growing popularity of speciality beers. - Scotland On Sunday​

Like most beer and pubs groups, Greene King, the IPA and Old Speckled Hen brewer, is out of favour. A year ago the shares were flying off the shelf because of excitement that its properties could be spun off into a separate company, allowing management to take on more debt and to return money to shareholders. Those plans have been postponed indefinitely because of the credit crunch, and Greene King's shares have been dumped by investors. The price has fallen 40 per cent to 744p from an annual high of 1,185p. Greene King is not alone in a sector that has also been hit by the smoking ban and falling beer sales. Unfortunately, we should expect things to get worse - much worse - before they get better. - Observer​