'Supermarkets selling booze at 1980s prices'
Supermarket chiefs were attacked yesterday for selling booze at 1980s prices. A Sunday Mail investigation has revealed the "shocking truth" about alcohol pricing. Asda are selling a red wine for £2 a bottle that would have cost £2.15 in 1983. If the price had been increased in line with inflation, the wine should be costing £5.42 a bottle. Alcohol Concern's Frank Sodden said: "Cheap promotions in supermarkets are one of the major reasons why adolescents who drink can afford to do so at far greater levels than in the past. Until the government gets serious about making alcohol less affordable, it's hard to see how we can protect young people and other vulnerable groups from cheap alcohol and risky drinking." - Sunday Mail
Two of Britain's biggest pub groups, JD Wetherspoon and Punch Taverns, are the latest victims of short-sellers who are pushing down the share prices amid fears about how well they can weather a full-scale recession. Short-sellers borrow a share from a bank or other financial institution for a fee, sell it, then hope to buy it back for less later, pocketing the difference. According to figures from City research firm Data Explorers, 18.28 per cent of Wetherspoon's shares are on loan, nearly as much as Northern Rock's (20 per cent) at the time it became the first UK victim of the credit crunch last year. The proportion of Punch's shares on loan stands at nearly 17 per cent. - Observer
Euan Venters, the new man at the helm of Greene King-owned brewer Belhaven, is to do a stint behind the bar at one of the group's pubs as part of his getting to know the business. For the next two weeks Venters will be under the wing of former Belhaven managing director Stuart Ross, who is retiring after 35 years in the company. Venters, who starts his new job tomorrow (Monday) and was previously global brand president for Sara Lee's Body Care business, says he sees no reason to change "what has been a successful strategy for Belhaven, which has been good food, good beers and good value for money". - Scotland on Sunday
"What does the SNP justice secretary Kenny MacAskill think he's doing, trying to stop young adults who can vote, fight and marry being able to buy a six-pack in Tesco? Especially when they can legally blow the housekeeping getting rat-arsed in the pub next door. Perhaps a lot of SNP supporters are publicans and this is a fund-raising project. The Nats say that pilots in Larbert, Stenhousemuir, Armadale and Cupar showed a reduction in crime, but they would, wouldn't they? They've probably got nothing better to do there than go to the pub and drown their sorrows." - Iain McWhirter, writing in the Sunday Herald
