As many as 3,600 independent c-stores are at risk of closure if the repercussions of a proposed tobacco display ban in the UK are as severe as those felt in Canada.

The estimate, calculated by The Grocer, comes in the wake of new data from the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, which revealed that since a tobacco display ban was introduced in Ontario, on 31 May last year, c-stores had closed at a rate of 23 a week. Twelve per cent of the stores that had closed were operated by independent retailers.

If the same statistic were translated to the UK market, a display ban could close 3,600 of the UK’s 30,000 independent c-stores.

Further data from CCSA found that since the tobacco ban was enforced in Quebec, Canada’s second-largest province, last May, 12 c-stores had closed a week.

“It is inevitable that the same move by the UK Government to ban displays will have a similar detrimental effect on the livelihood of retailers across the country,” said CCSA president Dave Bryans, who was in the UK this week to share his experiences of the display ban with MPs and retailers.

The display ban had also fuelled growth in contraband tobacco, Bryans added. In Ontario, the sale of illegal tobacco now outstripped legal sales for the first time, rising from 21% of all tobacco sales in 2006, to more than 50% in 2008. In Canada as a whole, illegal tobacco made up 32% of all tobacco sales.

“The evidence is very simple,” said Bryans. “The tobacco display ban does not work, has not worked and will not work.

“This is the biggest challenge small businesses have ever faced in the history of Canadian retailing and people who have never run a c-store do not have the right to decide the fate of small, family businesses to meet their own objectives.”

There were better ways to tackle teenage smoking such as education and cracking down on the sale of contraband tobacco, Bryans added.

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