Ms Evelyn Jones:

I thank the Chairman for having us before the committee today. Our association represents independent, specialist off-licences. We have 350 members who run pure or specialist off-licences. These are family owned and operated in the community. Unfortunately for us, alcohol in the off-sales sector is in the crossfire of a war for market share within the grocery industry. The upshot of the deep discounting of alcohol has been the loss of 2,800 jobs in our sector. There have been 75 closures in the past four years and seven closures since July 2012. Based on these figures, we reckon we face a further 25 or 30 business closures in 2013. Our members are trained, highly skilled owner-operators located in the heart of the community. They employ expertise in retailing alcohol but their livelihood is being undermined and threatened by the use of alcohol as a driver for footfall to sell other, dearer grocery products. An excise increase is a luxury we cannot afford. Currently we are having difficulty competing with the large multiples because they can absorb increases and sell below cost and reclaim the VAT on any loss against other grocery products.