English craft beer brand prints ‘not for sale in Scotland’ on aluminium cans

Three Blind Mice, an English craft brewer, has been tagging its flagship beverage cans with ‘not for sale in Scotland’ to deal with the deposit return scheme (DRS) in Scotland.The company blatantly devised this particular solution to avoid being fined under the Scotland DRS.

The DRS, which was scheduled to be launched in August, requires the beverage brands to increase the price of their assorted drinks by 20p so that the same amount can be refunded on returning the used container. The Scotland DRS has been designed to accept one-time use plastic bottles and aluminium cans.

The brewer was flustered by the fact that each drink type needs to be registered under the Scotland DRS with an initial fee of £350.

Three Blind Mice brews small batches of specialist beers, and the company can't agree to a programme with financial loopholes. The company claims that the rate of each can in Scotland would bring in a significant loss. 

The Director of Three Blind Mice, Alex Bragg, opened up while talking to sources and said the company was deploying this move all over its range so that it is never liable for any fine, even if dealers circulate their products in Scotland.

Alex narrated: “I have seen it talked about in brewing forums; they’re saying ‘, don’t sell in Scotland, or you might be hit with a hefty fine’.

“It’s on all our cans; we’ve only got about four [types of] cans; we put it on about a month ago. I know a lot of other brewers are going to be doing it,” he added.