Bargain Booze managing director Matthew Hughes has rubbished claims that the name of his business could provoke binge drinking.
Addressing a packed audience at last week's Food and Drink Expo, Hughes defended the use of the word 'bargain'. "There is nothing wrong with it. Shoppers need bargains and most people drink to a normal extent. Consumers should be able to pay a fair price for products, and a society which had no bargains would be very wrong," he said.
His claims come less than two months after rival operator Booze Buster was forced to remove a sign in Timsbury, near Bath, after residents branded it "crude and inappropriate".
Hughes added that he did not accept that low prices were a driver for the nation's binge-drinking problems, saying that "education, not taxation" was the key to tackling excessive drinking.
He revealed that a further 70 c-stores are planned this year. The Bargain Booze Select Convenience fascia, launched last spring, had enjoyed a successful first year, he said.