The Alcohol-Free Shop Blog

We recently introduced a new range of wines to our shop called EminaZero.

We were very excited about EminaZero which we believed to be our first
zero calorie wine.

We were given documentation from the producers to support this claim.

We have been informed today by the producers that this claim was made by
them in error.

We are truly sorry that we have inadvertently given our customers
false information.

We base our reputation on the trust we have built up with our
customers for excellent products and excellent customer service over
the last seven years.

It is important that we stress there is nothing harmful about this
product. EminaZero is a good quality wine and it is, as with all our
wines, low calorie.

Our wines have around 20 calories per 100ml which is about a third of
the calories of similar alcoholic wines.

EminaZero contains between 1.5 and 6g of sugar per 100ml depending on
the grape varietal.

The producers are now preparing an analysis to provide the calorie
content which they do not currently have.

The producers of EminaZero make a number of different wines.

They say that the original recipe for EminaZero contained zero calories.

They have told us that they changed the recipe to improve the taste of
the wine and that the new recipe was no longer zero calories.

Unfortunately, the producers made an error in providing us with
product information for the original recipe.

We learnt this after we approached the producers for clarification on
the product ingredients.

We knew that a product with zero calories must contain a sugar
substitute and we asked the producers for confirmation of this and
information on what sugar substitute was being used.

It was at this point that the producers realised that they had made an error.

We immediately removed all reference to this wine being zero calories
on our website and in any promotional material we had issued.

We are sincerely sorry for this and will be contacting every customer
who has purchased EminaZero to discuss this.

We take our responsibilities to our customers very seriously.

We will offer a full refund to any customer who has bought EminaZero
and we will arrange to collect any unopened bottles which customers
wish to return.

Please pass this information to your friends.

John Risby

Managing Director

Christine Risby from The Alcohol-Free Shop receiving our certificate from Theo Paphitis

I spent a lovely day yesterday with Dragons’ Den star Theo Paphitis.

We were among the winners of his SBS competition who were invited to a celebration at the Edgebaston Cricket Stadium in Birmingham.

Theo was very generous in sharing his business expertise and made everyone feel genuinely welcome and inspired. We were all presented with an official winners’ certificate.

I met some very enthusiastic business owners and entrepreneurs and shared our experiences. It was good fun.

Theo is well known for enjoying his tipple and told me he wasn’t planning to go tee total himself,  but he is very supportive of what we are doing.

Maybe we can persuade him to swap his favourite beer for an alcohol-free one at least some of the time!

Elaine Lemm has written a great review of our drinks over at high50.com.

You can read the article here - http://www.high50.com/archives/food-and-drink/alcohol-free-and-far-from-pissed-off

Today is the launch of Alcohol-Free Week 2012!

Alcohol-Free Week 2012 runs from 22 February to 28 February. During this week it is hoped people will be persuaded to abstain from alcohol for all or part of the week.

The aim is to make people more conscious of their drinking habits and help them see how big a role alcohol plays in their lives and how easy, or difficult, it is to do without.

A website has been set up at www.alcoholfreeweek.co.uk to help those taking up the Alcohol-Free Week challenge. The website offers tips on drinking wisely, suggestions on alternatives to drinking alcohol and a chance to win alcohol-free drinks every day during Alcohol-Free Week.

Alcohol-Free Week has been running since 2007. Each year businesses, local authorities, health trusts, health promotion agencies and educational institutions have held their own events to mark Alcohol-Free Week.

Organisations getting involved in Alcohol-Free Week include the health and social care service Turning Point (www.turning-point.co.uk) which has a series of activities planned.

The Alcohol-Free Shop is proud to sponsor Alcohol-Free Week and we are providing the prizes for the competition.

Christine Risby from The Alcohol-Free Shop said: “We are encouraging people to give up alcohol for a weekend or the whole week. Health experts advise that we should have at least two alcohol-free days a week. We hope Alcohol-Free Week will inspire people to look honestly at the amount they drink and adopt a healthier lifestyle.”

Please view the Alcohol-Free Week web site for tips on abstaining for the week, information on alcohol, and how to win the great prizes on offer

We can now ship around Europe using DHL. At the moment continental orders have to be placed on the telephone (freephone 0800 224 8024) but we will be adding the feature to our web site in the coming weeks. Please email us for a delivery quote.

Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis has made The Alcohol-Free Shop the first company of 2012 to feature in his Twitter showcase Small Business Sunday.

Hundreds of businesses enter every week hoping to win the recommendation of the star of BBC TV enterprise show.

Those businesses selected by him benefit from exposure to his 210,000 followers on the Twitter social network, and membership of the exclusive SBS club.

The Alcohol-Free Shop was chosen after we tweeted a message to Theo Paphitis highlighting the benefits of alcohol-free drinks to those detoxing after the festive binge.

It’s a great boost to be singled out by him and we’re proud to be able to display our award on our website.

We’ve started the New Year with a new courier and we’re looking forward to a super 2012!

Over Christmas some of you may have experienced a delivery service from Yodel (formerly Home Delivery Network) that wasn’t up to our usual high standards.

We’re now trialling another courier, UK Mail, and have a couple more lined up should they not prove up-to-scratch.

All customers will have their preferred (and worst) courier. Often this is down to the local depot or even the local driver, rather than the company as a whole. Delivery companies can – and do – change. We hope you’ll find our new delivery service soon back to the efficiency you, and we, expect. Please give us your feedback.