ScotCo calls for a halt to massive price hikes

Related tags Scottish courage Price Brewers

Scottish Courage has laid down the gauntlet to brewers to be more open with their pricing policies.The brewer has announced a 3.2 per cent increase...

Scottish Courage has laid down the gauntlet to brewers to be more open with their pricing policies.

The brewer has announced a 3.2 per cent increase for all of its beer brands this year, effective from April 4.

However it also said that the time had come for brewers to stop imposing massive price increases that confused customers.

Willie Crawshay, sales managing director at ScotCo said: "We think that the time is right to de-mystify the whole area of price increases and to let our customers know how we will treat this issue in the future. We have all punished the independent free trade for years with our severe price rises."

He confirmed that from this year onwards ScotCo would only increase its prices once in a calendar year as well as ensuring that any future rises would be "reasonable".

The brewer has also decided to stop including duty costs as part of its price rises.

Mr Crawshay said: "I think it is a scandal that brewers can include duty as part of their total price increase. Brewers should only be increasing according to their own costs - duty should not be included in this calculation."

However, Steve Cahillane, CEO Interbrew UK, claimed his company already operated in this way. He said : "Any price increases we pass on to customers due to increased operating costs are calculated in exactly the same way as that described by Scottish Courage. This is usual practice so we don't believe that there is any real issue here."

However, a spokesman for ScotCo said: "We are the first big brewer to call for standardization and clarity on beer pricing. If Interbrew uses the same system then that is great. That means it is one less brewer to fall into line."

Scottish Courage brands price increase (per barrel)