Dear Customer,
We have written previously to let you know that we are working on a solution for your un-broached (unopened) stock that is approaching, or has past, its best before date.
We are pleased to confirm that the British Beer & Pub Association, the leading trade association representing brewers and pubs, has today launched a cross-industry platform to enable spoilt draught beer and cider to be safely destroyed in pubs and millions of pounds in excise duty to be reclaimed.
Pubs and bars with spoilt beer and cider in their cellars can access the platform by visiting www.ReturnYourBeer.co.uk via mobile, tablet or computer and creating a profile. Once their profile has been created they can follow guidance and instructions on the platform to seek the necessary permission from each brand owner whose products they stock to destroy their products and to confirm the route(s) to market. Using this platform to record destruction will enable duty to be claimed back by brewers and the correct credit to be issued to customers via the relevant wholesaler.
Brewers who have signed-up to the platform along with Heineken include Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I, Molson Coors, Carlsberg, Asahi and Marston’s and more brewers are expected to join. The platform is intended to simplify and speed up the process of destruction, and excise duty reclaim, whilst freeing up space for new deliveries of fresh beer and cider, enabling outlets to restock and get cellars ready for re-opening.
The platform is free to use for any on-trade business that needs to destroy its spoilt beer and cider.
As many as 70 million pints of beer and cider from UK pubs will have to be destroyed after they were forced to shut due to COVID-19. Being able to reclaim excise duty on beer and cider will be worth tens of millions of pounds to the on-trade.
Our plan is to: (i) provide full credit for un-broached kegs and casks of beer and kegs of cider past their best before dates or with a best before date prior to the end of July, at the price which you purchased the beer or cider from us; and (ii) for broached kegs of beer and cider (but not cask), provide credit in respect of the excise duty element only of the price which you purchased the beer or cider from us, based on the volume remaining in the relevant broached keg. We will make this credit directly to you when we have received the credit via the brewer, You must use the on line portal to ensure credits come down the line from the brewer to ourselves.
It is vitally important that you do not dispose of any draught beer and cider without the permission of the online portal. We cannot give any credit for, or replace, beer or cider that has been disposed of without permission.
In order to ensure that you comply with HMRC guidelines regarding duty claims you must ensure that you destroy beer and cider in a safe and environmentally friendly manner in compliance with your local water authorities’ requirements.
Request not to collect full kegs from customers. We recognise there will be a desire for some customers to ask us to resolve this. To ensure we can fulfil where credits are due, we strongly advise customers to destroy on site once authorisation has been provided and only use www.ReturnYourBeer.co.uk
We are closely monitoring the Government advice for the Hospitality sector, and are preparing for reopening. We will be in touch shortly to confirm our start up plans in more detail including further advice on technical services and the advice on commencing ordering.
Thank you for your assistance.
Keep Safe
Regards
Steven Oxley