Responsibility Deal: Companies pledge to cut 1 billion units

Related tags Alcoholic beverage

Drinks companies, brewers, wholesalers and supermarkets have pledged to cut a billion units of alcohol as part of the Responsibility Deal with the Government, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced today.

The initiative is being spearheaded by 34 leading companies and trade associations including Accolade Wines, British Beer & Pub Association, Heineken, Marston’s and Molson Coors.

Companies have committed to a wide range of initiatives including lowering the strength of existing brands, introducing new lower strength products and encouraging people towards drinking smaller sizes.

Pledges include:

25 million units will be gradually removed from Accolade Wines including Echo Falls Rosé and Echo Falls White Zinfandel
Brand Phoenix - have committed to taking 50 million units of alcohol out of their wines - by reducing 0.8 per cent ABV on all FirstCape full strength red wines
Molson Coors, the UK’s largest brewer, has committed to remove 50 million units by December 2015;
100 million units will be removed by Heineken
Own brand super-strength lager will be removed from sale by wholesaler Makro
Tesco, the leading retailer for low alcohol drinks, will reduce the alcohol content of its own-label beer and cider and expand its range of lower alcohol wines and beers, already the biggest selling range in the UK
Sainsbury’s have pledged to double the sales of lighter alcohol wine and reduce the average alcohol content of own brand wine and beer by 2020.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “The Responsibility Deal shows what can be achieved for individuals and families when we work together with industry. We know it is an ambitious challenge to work in this way but our successes so far clearly demonstrate it works. We will work hard to engage even more businesses and get bigger results.

“Cutting alcohol by a billion units will help more people drink sensibly and within the guidelines. This pledge forms a key part of the shared responsibility we will encourage as part of the alcohol strategy.”

The Government has estimated that within 10 years removing one billion units from sales would result in almost 1,000 fewer alcohol related deaths per year; thousands of fewer hospital admissions and alcohol related crimes, as well as substantial savings to health services and crime costs each year.

Henry Ashworth, Portman Group and co-Chair of the Responsibility Deal Alcohol network said: “This is a great example of how producers, wholesalers, retailers and convenience stores are responding to changing consumer demands and showing how social responsibility and commercial success can go hand in hand.

"We are committed to offering a wider choice of drinks with a bit less alcohol that will also help more people to drink within recommended guidelines.”

Alcohol Unit Reduction Pledge – Signatories
1. AB InBev UK
2. Accolade Wines
3. ASDA
4. Association of Convenience Stores
5. Bacardi Brown-Forman Brands
6. Bestway Holdings Ltd
7. Beverage Brands
8. Bibendum Wines Ltd
9. Booker Group plc
10. Brand Phoenix Ltd
11. British Beer & Pub Association
12. C&C Group
13. Carlsberg UK
14. Costcutter Supermarkets Group plc
15. Diageo
16. Heineken
17. Landmark Wholesale Ltd
18. M&S
19. Makro SS Wholesalers Ltd
20. Marston’s Plc
21. McMullens & Sons Ltd
22. Molson Coors
23. Morrisons Supermarkets plc
24. Musgrave Retail Partners GB
25. Nisa Retail
26. Pernod Ricard UK
27. PLB Group
28. Sainsbury’s
29. Spar UK
30. Tesco
31. T&R Theakston
32. TFC Wines and Spirits
33. The Co-operative Group
34. Waitrose