Home-brew worry comes to head

Press, 17 January 1989, Page 1

Home-brew worry comes to head

By

BARRY CLARKE

The two main breweries are worried that a boom in homebrew kits might be having a big effect on their beer sales.

Beer consumption from retail outlets dropped 5 per cent for the year ended in June last year, while .home-brew kit sales increased dramatically. The trend is concerning Dominion Breweries and New Zealand Breweries, Ltd, which say the Government might have to look at imposing excise tax on kits, many of which are made in Australia and England.

D.B.’s general manager of marketing, Mr Mike Cahill, said the trend to home brew was costing the Government money. Last year 400 million litres of beer were sold in New Zealand, realising $2lO million in tax. “We have had internal discussions about the home brew. We are watching the situation very closely,” he said yesterday. “We are concerned because there are no controls over the sale of the kits. You can buy them in supermarkets. There is no excise tax on them and

there is no age restriction.” Mr Cahill said high unemployment made home-brew attractive from a cost point of view and the brands were easy to make. “You can just add water and sugar and you have instant, beer.” Mr Graeme McMillan, public relations manager for New Zealand Breweries, said his company was monitoring the situation. “Obviously we are concerned about anything that is going to take business away from us,” he said.

“The Government must • surely be concerned about the tax it is losing if sales are going down.” Mr McMillan said there were no plans to lobby the Government, but he could not rule out > possible action in the future. A leading Christchurch seller of the kits, Mrs Susan MacDonald, of Brewers Hop, said sales went up three-fold last year. “It is a lot cheaper and there is such a variety. Everyone can make beer to their own taste,” she said.