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Wine businesses must factor in cost of EPR into their financial forecasts, WSTA warns
Wine businesses must start factoring in the additional costs of extended packaging regulations into their forecasts, the WSTA has said, as it revealed that a significant number of businesses required to register have done so, a week before the deadline.
Speaking at the London Wine Fair this week, WSTA director of policy Simon Stannard said that while the implications around duty changes may be more pressing, businesses need to be aware of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations that are coming into effect in October 2025 and the paperwork and cost this may involve.
UK businesses who produce or use packaging are required to enrol in the Government’s EPR scheme to improve recycling and reduce the amount of packaging waste. Producers are expected to enrol in the Recycling Packaging Database (RPD) by 31 May 2024 to avoid being fined. In addition, companies who have an annual turnover of £1 million or more and were responsible for more than 25 tonnes of packaging in 2022, need to report their data by the 31 May deadline, with smaller organisations, who have a turnover between £1m to £2m need to start recording their data, and report this bi-annually from 2025.
“There’s a lot coming down the line and there’s a lot that businesses have to do to prepare for that,” he told a panel session. ” As well as registering, businesses need to start collecting the data which will help inform the scheme as it develops.”
“There are potential significant costs that you need to be factored into your thinking.”
As yet, the government have not revealed the detail, so currently, businesses don’t know how much they will be spending on this. Stannard had said he was hopeful that the details would become clearer in the coming month – although now that the general election has been called, this may push back that deadline.
As Stannard explained to db, currently, the full costs of moving to the EPR is unknown. “Some figures have been floating around for a number of years about the sort of magnitude of change, and some of that is quite scary,” he said, “Businesses need to be aware of what’s coming, plan and start to forecast that and put that into their financial forecasts.”
Currently there are a significant number of businesses required to register that still need to register, he added.