THERE is something unusual about the bottles of spirits pictured above the labels are written in Braille.

The Co-op supermarket, which has branches in Old Town, Groundwell Road, Cricklade Road, Beechcroft Road and the Eldene Centre, is the first retailer to include Braille labels on its own-brand alcohol.

The move coincides with the launch of new premium whisky and vodka just in time for Christ-mas.

On the two new spirits, Braille sits on the surface of the back label, enabling blind people to determine the product name, the size of the bottle and the alcoholic strength.

There are over one million blind and partially sighted people in the UK and the initiative to include the information in Braille has been welcomed by the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

The Co-op had to ensure that the legibility of the existing print was not distorted by the Braille lettering and that the Braille could withstand the production process, packaging method and ultimately transport to stores.

Kay Wheelton, who heads the team responsible for buying beers, wines and spirits for the 1,900 Co-op stores, said: "We believe that this initiative will help blind and partially sighted people to enjoy a greater indepen-dence when shopping and in the home.

"We also hope that putting Braille on alcoholic drinks will help raise general awareness of the diffi-culties faced by blind people.

"We are already planning to put it on other products within our extensive range of own label beers, wines and spirits again at no extra cost to the consumer."

In March, the Co-operative Group became the first retailer in the UK to introduce Braille on medicine packaging after two years of detailed development work.

Until then, Braille had only been applied on bleach bottles.

Both spirits Co-op Premium Five Year Old Whisky and Premium Triple Distilled Vodka will retail at £9.99.