Energy Drinks Vending Ban
By David Llewellyn, Chief Executive, The AVA
We’ve spent the past six months dealing with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, providing them with information about how we work with Energy Drinks in the vending industry.
We talked about the turnover and the voluntary restrictions we impose on putting Energy Drinks in public places such as, for instance, local authority leisure centers. We shared with them our latest data, which reveals that 82% of machines that sell Energy Drinks are located in workplaces, typically offices, manufacturing sites; distribution hubs, back of house, and in retail. You don’t need an MBA to realise that these are not the sort of places in which you’ll find many 15-year-olds and the whole point of the government’s rationale was – is – to ensure that children can’t access these products.
You’d expect, wouldn’t you, that any sane person would respond to this information by saying, ‘fair enough David, you’ve made it clear that vending machine sales of nergy drinks are not even an issue in our mission to prevent chidren from drinking them.’
Except, of course, that wasn’t how things transpired. In fact, the OHID responded by telling us, ‘ah that’s all well and good, but despite your reassurances we can never be certain under-16-year-olds will not be able to buy from an unattended retail point. So we’re going to ban the sale of energy drinks from all vending machines anyway, just to make sure.’
‘…make no mistake, it’s a political move.’
This ludicrous decision is part and parcel of Labour’s manifesto commitment to ban the sale of Energy Drinks to under-16s. So make no mistake, it’s a political move. It’s got nothing to do with ‘health’. They can dress it up all they like, but that’s what it boils down to.
The manufacturers of energy drinks, together with those who retail them, have always had a voluntary code of practice in place, just as the vending industry does. But even that’s not necessary, because in the vast majority of sites where energy drinks are vended, there are no kids. So, the bottom line is that this Nanny State is about to deny to our industry turnover in the region of £32m to ‘solve’ an issue that doesn’t even exist.
And to be clear, they’re proposing a blanket ban. Even gyms will not be exempt. Take PureGym as an example. You’ve got to be over 18 to get through the door! And pity the poor medics who need a caffeine boost at 3 in the morning. They’ll just have to soldier on without one.
But the OHID have made it clear that facts don’t matter when they’re applied to dogma. Despite our protestations, they have abandoned common sense and their report to HMG will recommend a total ban.
So, what can we do about it? Realistically, our cause is not media friendly. Unlike ‘Father Ted’ creator Graham Linehan’s arrest by 5 armed officers at Heathrow, or the doorstepping of Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson on Remembrance Day to accuse her of a non-crime hate incident, our plight won’t be on the 6 o’clock news or the front pages even if, in its own way, the nonsense that they’re proposing we simply take on the chin like good boys and girls is every bit as Orwellian in its sheer overkill.
‘Let’s collectively hold a mirror up to these people so they can see how ridiculous they look.’
It’s down to us to protest in any way we can and let me tell you, we haven’t got much time to do it. We have only a ‘consultation period’ of 12 weeks to make the civil servants think again about imposing a ban on Energy Drinks in vending machines. So we’re going to kick off our response by urging all AVA members – and all of their staff – to let the bureaucrats know what we think of their draconian proposal. To facilitate this, we’ll be creating a wide selection of response templates to make it as easy as possible for you to voice your outrage. We’re also drafting a letter for individual operator companies that they can send to their local MP. We need everybody – everybody – to get behind us in this mission. I’ll say it again: we have just 12 weeks – and counting – to stop £32m of hard-earned turnover being ‘stolen’ from us in one fell swoop.
If we let them get away with this, six months down the road there’ll be a White Paper and thereafter, anybody who sells Energy Drinks in a vending machine will be guilty of a criminal offence.
So, let’s rally together as an industry as never before. Let’s collectively hold a mirror up to these people so they can see how ridiculous they look.
I’ll keep you informed.
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