Sales of alcohol have shot up by 50 per cent since Wednesday’s Budget as thousands rush to stock up on wine, spirits and beer before duty increases tomorrow night.

Major retailers reported “huge” increases in alcohol sold through shops and on the internet. Online sites took orders from thousands of customers anxious to buy drink at pre-Budget prices and organise delivery later.

From Sunday night, 55p will be added to the price of spirits and 14p to a bottle of wine, with the promise of above-inflation rises in the years to come. The rise translates to a 6 per cent tax increase, costing drinkers an extra £1.5 billion.

Unusually, Alistair Darling postponed the increase for five days, giving on-the-ball shoppers time to stock up.

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Background

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• The Chancellor's speech in full

• Darlings first Budget: the reaction

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• Need to know: Budget 2008

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One customer, Andrew Bentham, a 28-year-old PR executive, said: “I went to my local Tesco’s yesterday and bought a couple of cases of beer and 12 bottles of wine. I’m on a budget and want to make savings wherever I can. I think the price for booze is already too high.”

A spokeswoman for Oddbins said: “In the short time since the Budget announcement on Wednesday, we have seen a 50 per cent increase in sales of table wines and spirits. The majority of sales are multibuys.”

Majestic wines, which sells 20 million bottles of wine a year, also said it had seen a 50 per cent increase in sales since Wednesday.

Tim Howe, Majestic’s managing director, told The Times: “We’ve seen sales running way ahead of what we would have expected. Since the beginning of the week people have been anticipating the Budget and buying more.”

Customers were spending 10 per cent more on each spend, Mr Howe added. One man ordered £3,300 worth of wine yesterday.

Laithwaites, one of Britain’s leading independent retailers and online sellers, said that there had been a “huge” increase in sales since the Budget.

“Currently Laithwaites is experiencing a 45 per cent increase in sales since the Budget,” a spokesman said. “It is across all wines and throughout the range, and is across all channels: telephone, e-mail, web and by mail.” A spokesman for Threshers said: “It’s incredible what people will do for 14p.”

Supermarkets, which occupy 70 per cent of the alcohol market, also reported “significant uplifts” in sales. A spokesman for Tesco said: “There has been some increased demand as customers stock up on beer, wine and spirits before the increase in duty but we’re certainly not anticipating any availability problems.” Asda also said that that its stores had seen bigger sales over the weekend. However, prices for alcohol on the major supermarket websites is determined by when the order is delivered rather than when it is placed. Unless customers can organise delivery dates before midnight tomorrow they will not be able to take advantage of the lower tariffs, Tesco said.

The surge in demand is expected to increase over the weekend, particularly with Easter and St Patrick’s Day on the horizon. From Sunday, beer will increase by 4p a pint and cider by 3p a litre, with alcohol duties set to increase by 2 per cent above inflation in each of the next four years. This means that Britons pay £1.46 tax on a bottle of wine, the highest in the EU.

A spokesman for the Wine and Spirit Trade Association said: “It is bizarre — at a time when the economy is slowing, prices are rising and many families are feeling the pinch — that the Government should choose to add to their burden by making the simple pleasure of a glass of wine or spirits considerably more expensive.”

Last orders

— Britons spend £10 billion on wine and champagne each year

— 5.9 million people drink more than twice the recommended daily guidelines

— Wine drinkers are less likely to get cancer than those who drink beer or spirits. A substance found in grapes, called resveratol, is thought to inhibit cancer.

— 27 pubs close down each week across Britain – nearly four a day

— Men drink an average of 18.7 units a week, while women drink 9 units (2006 figures)

— Alcohol-related illnesses and injuries cost the National Health Service up to £3 billion a year

— Alcohol has been shown to offer protection against mouth ulcers. In a study involving 447 people, aged 15-79, alcohol seemed to stop mouth ulcers developing

Source: Times database

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