Booze up: Union raises drinks prices

Drinks prices in the Students’ Union will be increasing due to the recent rise in alcohol duty. Draught products will now rise in price by 10p and spirit measures and bottles (330ml/275ml) will rise by 5p, although bottles of wine and mineral water will remain the same.

This duty rise happened to occur at the same time as the current SU beer deal ended, and suppliers added a further price increase. For the last three years the Union has absorbed all tax rises and supplier costs up until the 2.5 percent VAT increase to 20 percent in January, where individual drinks prices also rose by 5p. However, this has been described as “unsustainable” in an SU statement. Instead, drinks prices will increase in order to cover the duty rise and supplier cost increase.

Current drinks offers at Pop!, Top Banana and the Terrace Bar, as well as the 10 percent reduction in price in The Copper Rooms, will be sustained for the rest of this term. According to the Union, the increase does not mean any profit is being made, whilst very little will be made on the £1 drinks sold at Pop! and Top B.

The SU will also continue to follow the Union Council policy of ensuring that a soft drink is always available more cheaply than alcoholic drinks of the same volume.

Students’ Union Finance Officer Stuart Stanley said: “We’ve had the duty increase of the government … and we can’t absorb that price rise anymore”.

The SU currently has a beer deal provided by NUS Services Ltd, the trading company of the NUS, which allows the SU to get lower prices. This deal came to an end and now higher prices are being charged. “We’ve limited the increase as much as we can”, added Stanley, “it is only covering the increase we’re seeing … we have tried to minimise the impact”.

Stanley also emphasised the importance of retaining the current drinks offers until the end of term: “I hope that’s gone some way to minimise that effect … some things are going to have to change for next year but we thought it was important to keep that. We do still feel we’re competitive and all the money spent in the Union goes back into services we provide.”

First-year undergraduate Daniel Lewis commented, “[The] Copper Rooms [are] unpopular enough as it is … increasing drinks prices can only make it worse.” Lewis referred to maintaining the current drinks offers for this term as “just a gesture”. However, he also said, “an extra 10p will hardly make a difference to student habits”.

One third-year Maths student added: “I think the Union is pretty cheap anyway… we clearly abuse ourselves massively with the amount we drink so I don’t think it is a bad thing that prices are increasing slightly.”