50p-a-unit booze ‘to cut food bills’

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Title – 50p-a-unit booze ‘to cut food bills’
Source – Metro
Date – 29th September 2009

This is a nice thought and it would be great if supermarkets were that focussed that they were the ones to lead the country out of the ‘perils’ of alcohol abuse or the obesity ‘crisis’ it is facing. I would say this is probably not realistic…

I’m not suggesting that the minimum unit price for alcohol does not have its merits, but arguing that it will turn us towards eating more vegetables is probably taking it a step too far.

Supermarkets do not promote alcohol because they are somehow inherently evil, they do so because that’s is one of the commercial tactics which attracts people to their stores; I’m not sure cheap carrots have the same effect.

A simplistic way of looking at the promotions which attract people into the stores are those on ‘luxury’ products, which may not form part of our ‘stable’ diet, but which if we think we can get cheap will drive us to a particular store to buy our ‘stable’ diet at the same time.

I am not defending this tactic, but already we see other non-alcoholic brands being pushed, I went into a local supermarket this week and alongside the cheap alcohol which confronts you on entry was the largest stack of the largest tins of sweets I have ever seen; ‘buy one get one free’ was the message. Now you can price alcohol out of supermarket promotions and I have made an argument for levelling the playing field between the supermarkets and the on-trade before, but how far do you take pricing everything which is bad for you? Do we set a minimum price of sugar, calories, salt, additives, fat, fizzy drinks…

The very bottom end of the alcohol market is certainly difficult to defend when alcohol is cheaper than water and the argument that a minimum unit price on a 1.5l bottle of cheap cider currently priced at less than £1 will somehow affect the lowest earners in society is one I wouldn’t want to make. Some of these products and prices are there purely to allow people to get drunk and that is not a way to Responsibly Retail Alcohol.

The problem once again is finding a sensible position between the most aggressive marketing of ‘drinks industry’ and the ‘prohibitionists’. There are areas where the availability of alcohol at rock bottom prices is an issue, but the vast majority of the population drink responsibly and should be allowed to enjoy alcohol without being demonised or priced out.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector to help them sell alcohol more responsibly. These include; The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

The unacceptable face of alcohol promotion

Title – The unacceptable face of alcohol promotion
Source – The Times
Date – 28th September 2009

The Portman Group is the ‘drinks sector’s’ industry body which set the standards for alcohol marketing, labelling, packaging, promotion and branded merchandising.

The code of conduct they have created should be adopted not only by drinks manufacturers, but by the Licensed Retail Sector as a whole; this includes bars, clubs, restaurants, hotels, licensed cafes, off-licences, shops, supermarkets, the events industry and any outlet where alcohol is available for purchase.

The fact is that the sector is going to come under sustained fire in a run up to the general election early next year and Gordon Brown has already indicated that further regulation will be among the key election pledges; we all know this really means it will be one of the areas where unrealistic pledges will be made…

There are two ways that the arguments are going to be settled, the first is that the sector is going to ‘police’ itself and rigorously enforce sensible guidelines or government (Conservative or Labour) will enforce their own guidelines through further restrictive legislation. The time has passed for complaining about current legislation and for everyone in the industry to be proactive in their approach to their own businesses and put their own house in order.

During our courses we continuously emphasise that licensed premises need to realise that Responsible Alcohol Retailing is the long term strategy to a successful business model and we emphasise that your business will be much easier to manage if you are ‘seen as part of the solution, rather than part of the problem’. The only way to achieve this is to be proactive in regard to industry guidelines and industry standards such as those presented in this full page advertisement by the Portman Group in the Times earlier this week.

The Portman Group’s Code of Practice:

· The alcoholic nature of a drink must be absolutely clear.
· Alcoholic strength must not be dominant.
· No association can be made with illicit drugs, bravado, aggression or antisocial behaviour.
· No suggestion can be made that drinking can make you more popular or sexually successful.
· Consumers must not be encouraged to drink rapidly or ‘down in one’.
· There must be no encouragement of illegal or immoderate consumption, binge-drinking, drunkenness or drink-driving.
· Marketing must not have a particular appeal to under-18’s, or use images of people drinking who are, or look, under 25 years old.
· There must be no suggestion that drink can enhance mental or physical capabilities.

For more information on the Portman Group and their codes of practice please visit www.portmangroup.org.uk.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector to help them sell alcohol more responsibly. These include; The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

Moves to stop ‘vertical drinking’

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Title – Moves to stop ‘vertical drinking’
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 26th September 2009

More and more we are seeing local licensing authorities take on the licensed trade in their areas. In some town centres licensing authorities have swept through changes by taking all licensed premises to ‘review’ with the aim of restricting the hours they trade, adding sweeping conditions and in some cases reducing the number of premises operating in ‘high density’ areas.

In some cases we have seen vigorous defences being put up by the bigger operators who have the financial muscle to fight back with legal teams, but at the expense of ‘independents’ who can not afford the same ‘protection’.

In Reading’s case it will be interesting to see the approach they take. We highly recommend that those affected act proactively and make their feelings known during the consultation process, rather than just fighting the outcome.

Even more important is that businesses take a positive approach from the start and develop their business to reflect a more positive attitude to

Responsible Alcohol Retailing; work with the licensing authority to reflect their guidance and aim higher than simply feeding the binge-drinking culture. Heavy discounting has it’s place in business, but time is running out for those who rely on it within the Licensed Retail Sector; the future is going to be quality over quantity.

Those business plans which rely on discounting seem destined to suffer a future of battling reviews, additional conditions on their premises licence and the wrath of licensing authorities; who are set to be given even more ‘power’ to reflect local sensitivities in their guidance and approach to the Licensing Act 2003.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector to help them sell alcohol more responsibly. These include; The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

Legal ‘party drug’ GBL has destroyed my life

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Title – Legal ‘party drug’ GBL has destroyed my life
Source – Metro
Date – 25th September 2009

If there was any doubt about the effects of GBL use or the addictive nature of this drug, then this story should dispel those myths.

We recently commented on the plans to make GBL an illegal class C drug. See our recent feature:

·

‘Legal highs’ set to be banned

I’m just posting this story to reinforce the comments made in that blog entry and to reemphasise the reasons why this dangerous drug needs to be added to the list of controlled substances. The arguments about which class it should fall into are for me secondary (no disrespect is meant to those who have suffered at the hands of the dealers exploiting the current ‘legal’ nature of the drug), the important thing is to get it classified so that the ‘legal’ avenues of sale are closed and it can at least be seen to be what it is; a dangerous illegal drug.
At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector including The National Certificate for Licensees Drug Awareness (NCLDA). For other sectors our bespoke Drug Awareness (DA) courses, which examine illegal drugs, their effects and the drug litter synonymous with their use, are specifically designed to reflect the nature of our clients working environment. Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course complements these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and drug related behaviour.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.