Diageo price increase will impose further hardship on consumers says VFI
“Diageo took a 12-cent increase back in February which, in my memory, is the highest ever increase imposed,” said John Clendennen, VFI president
Diageo has written to all publicans in the country advising the price of a pint will increase by four cents (five cents when VAT is included) from August. The price increase is poorly timed and deeply unfair to both consumers and publicans, says the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI).
In the correspondence, Diageo cite “rising business costs” as the reason for imposing this increase.
Reacting to this announcement, John Clendennen, VFI president and owner of Giltraps Bar and Glamping in Kinnity, Co. Offaly, said: “This is incomprehensible both in the need for such an increase and the timing of it. Diageo took a 12-cent increase back in February which, in my memory, is the highest ever increase imposed. Many of the factors under ‘rising business costs’ Diageo refer to as justification for the increase were either known back in February and included in that increase or, indeed, have reduced in the meantime.”
Clendennen continued: “The timing is awful. We are in the middle of peak tourist season, businesses in tourist areas that need good summers to see them through the quiet winter period are suffering from the loss of accommodation beds, while the consumer is reeling from increased mortgage and other cost of living increases. I can’t think of a more inopportune time for a supplier to even be thinking of increasing prices, let alone doing it.
“I believe Diageo are out of tune with both their customers and the consumer. I will be calling on Diageo to review this decision immediately.”
