GROUP TAX STRATEGY

June 2025

This Tax Strategy, approved by the Board of Licensed Wholesale Company Limited, sets out the Groups approach to managing its tax affairs.

The Tax Strategy applies to the following Group Companies:

  • Licensed Wholesale Company Limited
  • LWC Drinks Limited
  • Licensed Wholesale Company Property Limited
  • H. T. White & Company Limited
  • Robinrate Limited
  • Dorbiere Limited
  • Hills Prospect Holdings Limited
  • Hills Prospect Plc
  • GBC Topco Limited
  • Glamorgan Brewing Company Limited

This document has been prepared in order to comply with the requirements of paragraph 16(2) and paragraph 25(1), Schedule 19 Finance Act 2016.


Introduction

Licensed Wholesale Company Limited is a UK incorporated company and the holding company of a group whose principal trading company is LWC Drinks Limited. The group is the largest independent drinks wholesaler in the UK and operates under the LWC Drinks, HT White and Hills Prospect trading names.

The Group also includes Dorbiere Limited, the principal activity of which is the operation of licensed public houses, restaurants and bars.

The Group’s direct contribution to taxation in the UK spans corporation tax, employment taxes, stamp duty, excise duties and VAT.

The key components of the Group’s Tax Strategy are:

  • to ensure that we pay the right amount of tax at the right time
  • to deliver an effective tax risk management process which reduces risk to an acceptable level
  • to arrange our tax affairs in an efficient manner
  • not to undertake purely artificial transactions in order to obtain a tax benefit
  • to develop and maintain a positive relationship with HMRC

Governance

The Directors of the Group are attentive to the importance of managing the Group’s tax affairs. 

The Directors take overall responsibility for the tax affairs of the Group and delegate compliance tasks to employees and professional advisers with the appropriate experience of such matters.

The Directors aim to ensure full compliance with tax obligations in a transparent manner.

 
Attitude to tax planning and risk

The Group recognises that collecting and paying taxes is an important way in which our group businesses contribute to society.

The Group adopts a conservative approach to tax planning within the context of its duty to its shareholders. The Group seeks to claim all relevant tax reliefs made available by the UK Government in line with the published policy objectives of such reliefs. The Group manages its tax costs by maximising the tax efficiency of business transactions, but it does not wilfully engage in tax schemes or structure transactions in such a way that it believes to be artificial or contrary to the spirit and clear intentions of the tax legislation concerned. The Group only uses tax planning to support its business strategy and any tax planning must have a sound commercial rationale.

The Group is solely UK based and does not use tax havens or complicated group structures to avoid or mitigate taxes.

Compliance with UK tax law imposes a significant cost burden on the Group.

To ensure that the activities of the Group remain compliant with all relevant tax legislation, the group companies engage the services of leading accountants and tax advisers to minimise uncertainty and risk in relation to the application and interpretation of tax law. Where appropriate, the Group obtains advanced clearance from HMRC in respect of proposed transactions.
 
Working with HMRC

The Group aims to meet its tax compliance obligations in a timely manner by making accurate returns, paying required liabilities, and providing adequate disclosure on returns and in relation to specific transactions.

The Group has regular communication with HMRC’s Wealthy Mid-Sized Business Compliance Directorate across a range of taxes through its professional advisers.

In recent years the company has received no significant challenge from HMRC regarding its tax submissions.