Asda under fire over minimum pricing

An Asda chief has come under fire for saying the chain will not support a minimum pricing policy because it is not in the interests of its customers.

Speaking at the Westminster Health Forum Seminar on Alcohol and Responsibility Guy Mason, Asda's public affairs manager, said minimum pricing would punish those who are already struggling to afford groceries and desperately depend on discounts.

Referring to a survey of 10,000 Asda customers, Mason said that 67 per cent of the chain's shoppers were against minimum pricing.

Mason said: "We are driven by our customers and they tell us what they want. We wouldn't welcome legislation on minimum pricing because our customers wouldn't welcome it either.

"We are being asked to punish 80 per cent of our customers to try to help the 20 per cent who do abuse alcohol and we don't think that's right."

But other delegates at the Forum attacked Mason for not taking the issue of alcohol abuse seriously, and for treating alcohol in the same way as essential groceries.

Don Shenker, the chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said: "Asda's mission statement is to provide the best price for its consumers. The problem with that is that alcohol is not an ordinary product - it's a psychoactive drug.

"Through supermarkets the people who are most vulnerable to alcohol misuse are able to afford alcohol cheaply. To prevent this we need to look at a strategy for minimum pricing to end irresponsible deep discounting."

Mike Benner, the chief executive of CAMRA, said that Asda's survey demonstrated precisely why regulations are needed, as some people are unable to behave responsibly with alcohol.

He called for a minimum price of between 45 to 50 pence per unit to be introduced.

Professor Mark Bellis, the director of the centre for public health at Liverpool John Moores University, also called for minimum pricing to be enforced as he referred to cheap alcohol available in supermarkets as "the cancer at the heart of our drinking problem."

The Publican ​last week launched a campaign - Make it the Minimum - calling on the government to introduce a minimum price of 50p on a unit of alcohol.

We have also launched a petition on the 10 Downing Street website, add your name by clicking on the link on the right.