Soaring fuel costs are putting yet more pressure on wine prices in the UK, even though importers say they are doing all they can to avoid increases.
With the crisis in the Middle East showing no signs of abating, the prospect of suppliers passing on fuel surcharges to their retail customers seems unavoidable.
UK haulage firms have introduced surcharges of between 15% and 20% to offset rising diesel prices, according to Miles Beale, chief executive of the Wine & Spirit Trade Association. “Wine merchants will already be seeing the knock-on effect from the conflict, even if it’s just the increased costs of filling up a van,” he says.
Tom Platt, CEO of Liberty Wines, says: “Given what has happened to oil prices, our shippers have, not surprisingly, put an even higher fuel surcharge on their invoices.
“We’ve tried to offset this increase by shipping in higher quantities, and so far that has worked. It is likely to be several months before we start selling those wines, as we carry an average of 10 to 12 weeks’ worth of stock.
“We’ll work our way through our current stock and gauge the situation before deciding to increase prices or not. We don’t want to rush into anything like price increases, as our customers have enough pressure on them at the moment.”
David Archibald, sales director of Cachet Wine, says: “We are seeing upward pressure on shipping costs, along with our outbound UK hauliers increasing fuel surcharges.
“We have seen our main pallet distribution provider increase their fuel surcharge from 4% a month ago to 12%, and then last week a further increase to 15.9%.
“We are not happy with the speed with which these increases have been made – these things tend to go up like a rocket and drop like a feather.”
Cachet is “taking a long-term view rather than reacting to what we hope may be short-term volatility” and has “no plans to increase our pricing at this stage”. But Archibald says the business is keeping a “watching brief”.
Vindependents director of operations Mark Brooksby says: “We’ve seen shipping costs increase by 7.5% to 11% on European imports and 5% to 7.5% on deep sea over the past few weeks, in the form of fuel surcharges.
“A significant portion of this appears to come from the UK delivery leg. Our UK warehouse partner has also applied a 10% increase on domestic deliveries. As these surcharges move with underlying costs, the unpredictability can be as challenging as the increases themselves.”
Brooksby says Vindependents “will continue to absorb what we can” but admits that “if these conditions persist, some level of price adjustment may be necessary”.
Kukla Beverage Logistics, the freight forwarder, insists that costs it is passing on are “fair, transparent, and directly linked to real market conditions”.
MD Steve Wood says: “The Road Haulage Association’s national index now reflects a 41% increase since the first week of January, with similarly sharp rises seen across EU domestic trucking and various marine fuel grades.
“This unanticipated escalation has had a substantial impact on 2026 freight cost planning and supply chain budgeting.”
He adds: “As a specialist BWS forwarder, we recognise that pricing consistency and service reliability are essential. In periods of volatility, our role is to apply market experience, maintain strong relationships with our carriers, and help customers navigate the changing landscape.”
