Cider business up for sale due to 'diabolical' tax

A Herefordshire couple who have decided to sell their craft cider business blame the government for "diabolical" trading conditions.

Alex Culpin, who has run the award-winning Ty Gwyn Cider in Pontrilas for 11 years, with his wife Laura, says he is reluctantly choosing to give up the company, citing VAT and alcohol duty rates as key reasons.

"The honest truth is we have done incredibly well, we have won awards and people love our cider but the trading conditions are diabolical at the moment and it is just incredibly hard to make it stack up," he said.

A spokesperson for HM Treasury said: "We have kept alcohol duty rates steady in real terms to support public health and the public finances."

Culpin said he was disappointed to be leaving the industry but suggested running a business in the current economic climate was not feasible.

"It is quite sad really," he said. "I would rather not be waving goodbye to what is a nice world to be in.

"I do not think that successive governments have placed enough value on rural craft cider businesses.

"We pay 20% VAT, we pay alcohol duty on every litre we sell so that is a huge chunk of our profits gone and at the moment there's no grants or subsidies that I know of for a rural craft cider business."

Culpin added: "If we were a rural craft cider business in, say, France, there's a good chance that we would be paying a lot less VAT, we quite possibly would not be paying any alcohol duty, and we would probably be eligible for grants and subsidies."

Despite making the decision to cut his own ties with the company, Culpin said he was still optimistic another owner could take on the business.

"I wish there was a way of keeping it going," he said. "I am hopeful that someone will come along, possibly a bit younger than me who has got the passion and wants to see if they can buck the trend or bring something new to it.

"I would have to borrow an awful lot of money to really take Ty Gwyn Cider to the next stage and at some point I have to start competing with the more mass-produced ciders and they are on a different playing field."

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