LONDON (ShareCast) – Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE – news) in UK listed pub landlords, brewers and beverage companies all added gains on Wednesday after UK chancellor George Osborne decided to cut duty on beer by 1p for the third successive time in his budget.
“Today I am cutting beer duty for the third year in a row – taking another penny off a pint,” Osborne announced. “I am cutting cider duty by 2% – to support our producers in the West Country and elsewhere.

Last year’s penny-a-pint cut helped create 16,000 jobs in the brewing industry, he said. The chancellor also said duty on cider and spirits such as Scotch whisky will be cut by 2%, “to back one of the UK’s biggest exports”, and wine duty will be frozen. Unsurprisingly, that lifted shares of UK listed booze makers and pub landlords.

JD Wetherspoon shares shot up 1.4%, Greene King (Other OTC: GKNGY – news) rose 1%, SABMiller (Xetra: BRW1.DE – news) added 0.4% and Diageo (LSE: DGE.L – news) gained 2.4%;

The British Beer Pub Association said the move will put an additional £180m “in the pockets of beer drinkers and pubgoers”. Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the BBPA said the chancellor really is a ‘Hat Trick Hero’ with his third, successive beer tax cut showing he has listened to consumers, publicans and brewers.

“Beer tax is now 10p lower than it would have been under the beer duty escalator, which he abolished. It will boost employment by 3,800 this year alone and attract new capital investment. It will put £180m in the pockets of beer drinkers and pubgoers. That is a huge difference. The renewed confidence in our sector is reflected in rising beer sales in 2014, for the first time in a decade,” said Simmonds.

The Society of Independent Brewers also welcomed the latest relief on booze duty. “This is a great day for British independent brewers, pubs and consumers,” said managing director Mike Benner.