Stores fail to abide by code on alcohol

Three out of every 20 supermarkets and convenience stores failed to comply with the grocery sector’s own voluntary code on the display and sale of alcohol products last year.

The results of an annual audit mean stores’ compliance levels have now fallen to their lowest level since the code was introduced five years ago.

The latest annual report by the Responsible Retailing of Alcohol in Ireland group, which covers the 12-months to last September, showed an overall compliance rate of 83.5%.

A total of 66 stores out of 400 surveyed as part of an annual independent audit failed to achieve full compliance with the code.

The RRAI’s independent chairman, Padraic White, said he considered the results “acceptable”, but acknowledged they were lower than in previous years.

The RRAI was set up in 2009 to oversee the implementation of the industry’s voluntary code, which was introduced as an alternative to Section 9 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2008.

The legislation, regarded by the RRAI as a “blunt instrument”, sought to provide for the structural separation of alcohol products from other retail items in mixed trading premises. However, the code’s operation is formally subject to an annual review by the justice minister.

RRAI members include Dunnes Stores, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, SuperValu, Centra, Spar, Mace, Londis, Topaz, Aldi, and Lidl, representing around 2,600 licensed stores in the Republic, of which almost 60% are full off-licences.

The annual report showed the compliance rate among the large multiple groups last year was 95%, but just 74% in the convenience store sector. Aldi, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Fresh, Topaz, and Applegreen all achieved a 100% compliance rate.

The main reasons why stores failed the audit related to retailers being unable to produce a copy of briefing documents for staff and for not properly displaying a copy of the code in their stores.

A quarter of all convenience stores audited failed to comply with the rule stipulating that alcohol products can only be sold at clearly designated checkouts.

Mr White said the number of complaints upheld for breaches of the RRAI code fell sharply. He pointed out that retailers immediately rectified the cause of the complaint in the majority of cases, which were generally a one-off inadvertent breach at store level.

Mr White said there was now almost universal compliance by RRAI members with a restriction which limits a maximum of 25% of advertising space on a single advertisement to alcohol products.

He revealed the RRAI had objected to the renewal of a liquor licence of one non-affiliated retailer last year due to their persistent, serious breaches of good practice relating to the display and promotion of alcohol products.

The group has called on the justice minister to act on proposals to place its code of practice on a statutory basis to give clarity to members.