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About the WSTA and membership

Great news! Membership is per company so when your company joins, all employees can have access to member services. Subscriptions are based on annual turnover of wines and spirits and starts from as little as c. £460+vat a year.

Find out more about WSTA member services here or click here to apply.

The WSTA represents over 350 companies producing, importing, exporting, transporting and selling wines and spirits in the United Kingdom.

WSTA members range from major retailers, brand owners and wholesalers to fine wine and spirit specialists, logistics and bottling companies, and low and no alcohol producers.

The WSTA does not work for the Government. We are an independent Trade Association which represents the interests of its members who are private businesses.

Challenge 25

You can download a number of designs from the Retail of Alcohol Standards Group website.

Please note that the WSTA nor RASG do not provide printed versions of the posters – you will have to contact a professional printer to get this done. If you need posters for Bars, Restaurants or any other on-trade premises, please contact the British Beer and Pub Association.

Finding information about companies and brands

We are unable to provide details on outlets for specific brands, but we can assist you in finding out who the brand owner of a particular product is. For details of where to purchase a particular brand, we would recommend to purchase a copy of the Harpers wine and spirit directory which will provide you with that information.

We are a trade association which is funded by our members and as such, we can’t recommend specific brands or companies as this would equate to promoting one member over another.

A list of WSTA members can be found on the members directory here where you can search by business type.

To get access to a full list of UK based wine and spirit companies, please purchase a copy of the Harpers wine and spirit directory which will provide you with that information.

There are various providers of wine and spirit courses in the UK. The main organisation providing such courses in the UK is the Wine and Spirit Education Trust.

The main UK wine and spirit trade publication are:

About Tax, Duty and Compliance

Duty is not payable on wine in cases where what is called ‘organoleptic’ tasting by professionals takes place within companies for the purposes of quality control, provided that the wine is not consumed.

Wine used for promotions and for tasting at, for example, trade fairs, shows, exhibitions and supermarkets must be duty-paid.

In Q4 2013, the average off trade retail prices were £4.96 (75cl) on wine, £6.34 on sparkling wine (75cl), £5.88 on fortified wine (75cl) and £12.44 on spirits (70cl).

It is the location of sale of alcohol which determines who needs to be licensed. If the alcohol is stored, selected and dispatched to the purchaser from a warehouse then it is the warehouse, and not the call centre, that will need to have a premises license. The warehouse will also need a designated premises supervisor who needs to be a personal license holder. If however, the alcohol is shipped to the seller’s premises and they then dispatch to their final customer, they will need both a personal licence and a premises licence. Responsibility for advising on and issuing Licences rests with the local authority in which the business is based. Get in touch with your local authority/council and ask to speak to their Licensing Department for further information. Alternatively, get in touch and we will help.

Excise duty is a UK tax due on all alcohol imported into the UK (or for what is referred to a ‘released for consumption’) regardless of where it is from, whereas Customs Duty is a European tax on alcohol imported from outside the European Union. For example, on a wine imported from Spain excise duty would have to be paid but not customs duty, but on a wine imported from Australia both excise duty and customs duty have to be paid.

Please see the UK Government website for the latest tax: https://www.gov.uk/topic/business-tax/alcohol-duties

Why Join The WSTA

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  • Access to cost-effective expert advice on legal, regulatory and tax matters.
  • Have a voice with government.
  • Regular updates and briefings on key policy and legislative issues that could affect your business.
  • Access to the latest market research
  • Valuable networking opportunities through our conferences and events

See More about Member Benefits