'Young women drinking dangerous levels of booze'

Government statistics show that girls aged under 15 are consuming an average 11.3 units of alcohol a week, the equivalent of six medium glasses of wine or five pints of beer. This compares with 11.9 units for an average male teenage drinker who is aged 11 to 15. It is the first time girls have been closer than five per cent behind their male counterparts. Experts said the figures painted a disturbing trend of the rise of the "ladette" girls who are drinking dangerous levels of alcohol. - Daily Telegraph​

The imminent departure of chairman John Lovering after just a year in the job - giving Mitchells & Butlers its fifth chairman in three years - means more disruption when, says chief executive Adam Fowle, "a bit of stability would be a good thing". But Fowle says Lovering is leaving on good terms: "Having him around has been great and he's hugely experienced, but a different type of chairman is probably what we need now." At last week's AGM the pub operator lost a resolution granting it permission to issue more new shares, which some saw as investor Joe Louis (who owns 22 per cent of the group and voted against the proposal) showing who was boss. - Mail on Sunday​

Fizzy drinks maker AG Barr is to re-name Diet Irn-Bru so that "it does exactly what it says on the tin" under a £2 million- rebranding exercise. Sugar-free Irn-Bru will be launched with television advertising on Valentine's Day, with rebranded bottles already being produced at the group's base in Cumbernauld. Chief executive Roger White said: "We carried out research among our drinkers and they didn't realise that Diet Irn-Bru contained no sugar. - Scotland on Sunday​

The pub and brewery business Marston's has added its name to the growing list of pub groups reporting a bumper Christmas, yesterday outlining "robust" sales that defied the "exceptionally wintry" conditions in one of its key trading periods. The brewer's rivals report similarly strong sales. On Thursday there were upbeat results from rival Mitchells & Butlers, which reported a six per cent jump in food sales in the past 17 weeks, including 163,000 Christmas dinners. Their smaller rival Fuller, Smith & Turner, which owns 360 pubs, reported sales up 3.5 per cent in the 43 weeks to 22 January. - Independent​

A fan of the English pint, rather than the litre, Peter Hitchens writes: "Would it really be so difficult for those of us who still feel British to say: 'No, thank you, please measure that in pounds and ounces,' to the trader who offers us kilos, and to complain when the national broadcaster uses foreign expressions to replace perfectly good English ones. I will think, and imagine, and speak, and cook and buy and eat and drink in proper English measures till I die, and hope for 6ft of English earth when that day comes." - Daily Mail​