Leamington-based distillery owners says he will be facing 'extortionate' duty fees after the autumn Budget announcements
The owner of a distillery based in Leamington says he will be facing 'extortionate' duty fees following the autumn Budget announcements this week.
Chancellor John Healey has announced a £10 million-a-year boost for small producers in the alcohol industry, but products above 8.5 per cent ABV will remain excluded from the boost.
The Small Producer Relief (SPR) was introduced in 2023 as part of alcohol duty reform and on October 28 the Chancellor said the system would become “more generous” and benefit more than 2,000 producers.
Alcohol duty is also set to rise again in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) from February 1, 2027.
David Blick, founder of the Warwickshire Gin Company, which is based at the Victoria Business Centre in Neilston Street, will be one of the many businesses now facing increases in duty fees.
To highlight the extortionate increase, he used an example of a 205 litre drum of gin.
He said: “This 205 litre drum here cost us last week £686. Sounds quite reasonable.
“Now with the duty on that, we are going to end up paying for all of that, the 205 litres will be £6,994.
“Yeah, that's right. Nearly seven grand, and that's because the Chancellor yesterday increased the duty on spirits to £35.54 per litre.”
David highlighted the impact this have on the business in a video posted on the Warwickshire Gin Company’s social media account.
He also further broke down the impact the increases will have.
He said: “So, what that impact on our gin is – a £38 bottle of gin – we're paying £6.33 VAT, and we've got £7.10 duty just in that bottle.
“So a bottle here has £13.43 tax in it. So of that, the Warwickshire Gin Company sees £24.57.”
David said that due to the increases the business, which a will have to put its rates up “because of the Chancellor's actions” but added that he did want to keep things fair for everyone.
He said if the business was to keep up with inflation, a bottle, which retailed at £31 when the business started in 2018, would now be £46.50.
He added: “So we're still going to be way under keeping up with inflation.
“Obviously, we're losing out per bottle, but we just want to keep things fair.”