More than 15,000 small shops could go under if the government’s proposals to hide tobacco under the counter become law.
In a worst-case scenario, it could leave 75,000 people unemployed – two-and-a-half times the jobs lost when Woolworths closed.
That’s the stark warning from Japan Tobacco International, formerly Gallaher, which has given its damning verdict on the proposals as they reached the Lords this week.
JTI said the figure had been estimated using data from Canada where a display ban was already in place. There, 30% of smaller independents were at risk of closure, and if this was translated to the UK, it put 15,000 indies in jeopardy.
Sales would be displaced to the illicit trade which, JTI estimated, could rise to 30% of all tobacco smoked. “The Government should fully examine the unintended consequences of a display ban, namely growth in the illicit trade in tobacco and the potential for widespread closures among smaller independents,” warned Eddy Pirard, JTI regional president for UK and Ireland. He also questioned the Department of Health’s consultation process. Although Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Health, said 100,000 people had taken part, 79,272 of these were from government agencies, NGOs and charities, he claimed.
“This emphasis clearly creates a distorted view of the consultation process,” said Pirard. “The answer was guaranteed before the question was asked.”
Just 21 responses were from trade and industrybodies, he added, while submissions from the ACS and Tobacco Retailers Alliance, and evidence from Canada and Iceland that display bans had not cut youth smoking, were ignored.