JD Wetherspoon founder Tim Martin has written to the Competition Commission objecting to Heineken’s takeover of Scottish & Newcastle, writes Paul Charity.
Martin argues that the move will result in a serious reduction in competition and is worried by Heineken’s “attitude to price”.
He complains that Heineken has refused to supply Amstel to his company because Wetherspoon wanted to sell it for £1.99 a pint.
Martin says in his submission to the Competition Commission: “The number of brewers from whom publicans buy recognised and attractive lager products has dropped dramatically in recent years as the number of major brewers has contracted through takeovers.
“At the current time, in choosing a portfolio of lagers, the main brewers from which publicans can choose are Scottish & Newcastle, Coors, Carlsberg and Heineken.
“Although the first three companies have by far the biggest volumes in the UK, Heineken has viable alternative products and is pushing hard to get them established in British pubs. Their pouring lager is Amstel (around 4% abv) and their premium lager if Heineken itself (5% abv).
“We feel it is a very unhealthy situation if the selection of brewers from which publicans can choose is reduced in this way.
“Our fears are exacerbated by the attitude of Heineken towards price. We recently wished to add another pouring lager to our portfolio and sought to install Amstel in all our pubs with an initial selling price of £1.99.
“However, Heineken refused to supply the product to us, since they wished to establish a “premium” selling price for their product.”
Martin claims that a main motive for the Heineken takeover of S&N is reduce the level of competition in the market and to push up prices to the licensed trade and, ultimately, to consumers.
He added: “There has recently been some concern about low prices of alcoholic products, mostly related to supermarkets (since the price of beer in pubs has continued to rise above inflation), but the history of the last 30 or 40 years has been one of concern by the competition authorities about the price of alcoholic products rising above the level of inflation, thereby giving rise to inflationary problems for the economy itself.
“Heineken and Scottish & Newcastle, as separate companies, provide clear and distinct alternative sources of supply for publicans in Britain and this reduction in competition should not be permitted.”
