Pub operators say England’s match with Slovenia drew the biggest crowd of any England game — but opinions on the tournament overall have been mixed.
BigHospitality's sister title The Morning Advertiser contacted eight operators for a post-mortem on the World Cup, now the expected boom period of England games is over.
Six agreed that last Wednesday’s Slovenia game represented the biggest sales uplift, with the 3pm kick-off meaning workers rushed to pubs rather than home.
Orchid Group reported a 5 per cent uplift during the tournament. England v Germany on Sunday was the best in terms of cash, while the Slovenia game boosted sales by 60 per cent. Sales jumped 175 per cent at its freehouses and 40 per cent at its Fresh Dining sites.
Nick Pring, of London’s Realpubs, said the Cup had 'beaten expectations'.
“Each England game was worth £500,000 profit to us, so going out now has cost us quite a bit,” he said.
Charles Wells Pub Company noticed “the number of emergency deliveries increased over the past couple of weeks, which suggests the combination of football and sunshine did drive people into pubs”.
World Cup's negative impact for some
Andrew Crawford, operations director at Pub People Company, said its 30 football-focused pubs put in a “good performance, but not spectacular”.
Nick Griffin, boss of the 10-strong Pleisure Pub Company, said its Eastbourne venue, the Counting House, had a big screen in the garden and sales were 96 per cent up on Sunday.
But sales were down 1 per cent overall in the period as many Pleisure pubs didn’t show games.
“It wasn’t the great big money-making extravaganza we were promised," he said. "Supermarkets clearly cleaned up, while small landlocked pubs lost out.”
“It was disappointing all round,” said Michael Kheng, managing director of Kurnia group, who said numbers were down “massively” for England v Germany.
At Loungers, managing director Alex Reilley said revenues dropped between 25 per cent and 60 per cent across its 14 pubs. “We have no TVs, so on match days it was pretty horrendous," he said. "As a patriot I’m gutted we’re out, but from a business perspective I’m glad it’s over.”
Gemma McKenna is senior reporter at BigHospitality's sister title The Morning Advertiser.