Home Office minister Alan Campbell is urging independent retailers to back the Challenge 25 initiative launched earlier this month (January) in the retail trade.
All the major UK supermarkets are behind the initiative that insists all young people under the age of 25 have to provide photo ID if they want to buy booze.
New signage is starting to go in-store and Challenge 25 will succeed Challenge 21, which is said to have “markedly reduced” levels of under-age purchasing of alcohol.
Campbell told Independent Retail News he hoped the independent sector would support Challenge 25 to help further cut the incidence of under-age purchasing. “It’s about getting into the public consciousness that they will be challenged and they are going to be held accountable,” said the minister.
He said the new retail trade campaign would also make it more difficult for the proxy purchase of alcohol for under-age teenagers.
Challenge 25 is the brainchild of the Retail of Alcohol Standards Group (RASG), formed in 2005 and made up of members of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA), British Retail Consortium (BRC) and the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS).
The leading symbol groups are expected to support Challenge 25 as it rolls out over the next few months.
Matthew Hughes, managing director at Bargain Booze, said the initiative was supported at a recent meeting of 350 franchisees. “We have been telling them for sometime this would be coming into place and we go live on February 16,” he said.
“It’s a natural evolution of Challenge 21.”
Challenge 25 posters can be downloaded from the WSTA website on www.wsta.co.uk
Mike Dennis
The original article appears in Independent Retail News
