Alcopops on the rocks again as drinks dispute fizzes up

Irish aficionados of alcopops, the alcohol-spiked fruit juice and lemonade drinks, can rest assured this weekend that while their favourite tipple is under attack at home and in Britain, it appears to be here to stay.

It all started on Monday, when JD Wetherspoon, an independent chain of 194 British pubs, said it could do without the relentless bad publicity that has followed alcopops. Critics have accused those who sell the drinks of pandering to the under-age market, and the company said it would no longer sell the products.

"We have considered the situation carefully," said the chairman and founder of JD Wetherspoon, Mr Tim Martin. "Many people are concerned that they may be attractive to people too young to drink legally. We simply do not want to be associated with the controversy."

The move comes after a sustained campaign in England by opponents of alcopops, including the British Medical Association which warned of a future epidemic of liver disease if youngsters were encouraged to drink.

Others said the products represented an attempt by the beverages industry to wean teenagers off soft drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy, but pointed out that such drugs caused fewer deaths than alcohol abuse.

Although there has been less opposition in Ireland, alcopops' critics have included the former Minister for Health, Mr Michael Noonan, who said last year he thought "a beer should look like a beer".

"The alcoholic lemonades are one of the biggest threats to young people in the country," he said last September. "The manner in which they are branded and marketed to make them look as if they were non-alcoholic drinks is positively dangerous."

On Wednesday, the Minister of State in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Tom Kitt, launched a blistering assault on alcopops, describing them as "cynical concoctions aimed at the impressionability and vulnerability of youth".

Mr Kitt said he was examining the need for tougher controls on the marketing, promotion and sale of alcopops, as part of an overall campaign to curtail the supply of alcohol to underage drinkers.

"I'm not being a killjoy here, but I would describe this as an undesirable product," he said.

Mr Kitt said he planned to introduce a code of practice to prevent the marketing of the drinks to under age drinkers.

Representatives of the drinks trade, however, accused the minister of publicity seeking, saying that in March 1996 they had unveiled their own, voluntary code of practice covering every aspect that appeared to concern the Government. They invited Mr Kitt to discuss the issues at greater length.

Meanwhile, the retail value of alcopops in the Republic is around £30 million, down from last year's £39 million but it is reckoned to have stabilised at its current level. While this is a respectable total for a new product, it represents less than 0.5 per cent of total pub volume.

United Beverages, which makes Woody's, the most popular brand of alcopop in Ireland, with over 60 per cent of the market, is happy with the new product and unperturbed by recent developments. The company's marketing director, Mr Philip Smith, says the Irish market and patterns of consumption differ considerably from the British one.

"Our typical drinker is female, likes the effect of alcohol but not the taste, and is anywhere between 22 and 50. We have been surprised by the number of older women who prefer it," Mr Smith says. "Also, almost 95 per cent of Irish sales are in pubs, not off-licences."

This contrasts with the British market, where an equal number of men and women choose alcoholic fruit or fizzy drinks, and only 54 per cent of sales are in pubs.

Mr Smith says that because Irish pubs tend to be more owner-run and community-based than their urban British counterparts, publicans tend to be more responsible in refusing to serve those not entitled to drink.

Other industry analysts say that while in Britain one company owning hundreds or even thousands of "tied" pubs can impose a blanket ban, the same system does not apply in Ireland, where each publican has the power to stock, or reject, any product.

"Like everyone in the drinks industry, we know that we have a problem in Ireland with alcoholism and with under-age drinking," says Mr Smith. "But people should remember that a Woody's, for example, has an alcohol content of 4.7 per cent, compared to around 4.2 per cent for most popular beers."

"Also, if someone charges you £2.40 a bottle, and you go home and say you confused it with lemonade, that's beggars belief," he adds.

Other observers say alcopops will simply be assumed into the market and in time the publicity will die down.

Similar controversies have raged in recent years over a number of drinks. Many will recall the fuss over Babycham, accused of encouraging women to turn to drink; and Smirnoff, said to be promoting the fact that parents could not smell it on the breath of their offspring; and Pernod, which became renown for its alleged effects on public morals.

All are now thriving.