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JW Lees & Co is a Middleton-based brewer

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3:35 pm, January 27, 2010
JW Lees announces price freeze

By Michael Fahy

Middleton-based brewer JW Lees & Co has pledged to freeze the prices of its beers in a bid to support landlords whose businesses are under fire from the ongoing effects of the smoking ban and cheap supermarket alcohol.

“We are putting our customers and licensees first and are pledging that we will not put up the wholesale or retail price of any JW Lees beers in 2010,” said the firm's managing director, William Lees-Jones.

He said that although brewers and publicans have had to deal with a series of problems including three consecutive poor summers and the “ridiculous” duty-escalator tax, they had also benefited from reductions in energy and raw materials costs. The business had also imposed a pay freeze.

“We feel that it would by cynical to hit our customers with increases since we have benefitted this year from reductions (in costs). Pubs must not price themselves out of the market.”

He added a caveat that it could only uphold the promise in the areas that it controls. However, if the government continues to increase VAT or beer duty the firm would havew to pass this on, he said. He pointed out that for every pint currently sold at £2.10 the treasury takes 68p – around a third – in taxes. He said that UK beer taxes were now the third highest in Europe and nine times the rate of that in Germany.

Last week, family-owned JW Lees revealed that its pre-tax profits fell by 34 per cent to £3m in the year to March 31, 2009 on sales up 10 per cent to £50.1m.

COMMENTS? mfahy@crain.com