Sales boost for eating out sector following warm March

The figures, which come from the Coffer Beach Business Tracker, represent a modest bounce back for the eating out sector, following negative figures for both January​ and February​.

“March’s figures essentially put the sector back on an even keel,” said Peter Martin of Peach Factory – the business intelligence specialist that produces the sector Tracker. “The good weather will certainly have helped trading, particularly in the pub market, which performed more strongly than high street restaurants.

“The sector will be relieved to see some growth back in the system, after seeing like-for-like sales drop 2.1 per cent in January and 3.7 per cent in February. Luckily both are weak trading months, so seeing sales pick up in the run up to Easter will be welcome.”

Richard Hathaway, head of travel, leisure & tourism for KPMG, which works in partnership with Coffer Peach, added: "The figures for March are encouraging, the warm weather throughout the month obviously inspired people to eat and drink out more which is reflected in the like-for-like sales growth.”

Month-on-month, March sales were up 31.3 per cent on February, mainly reflecting the effect of comparing five weeks of trading in March against four in February. It should be noted that the increase in total sales includes the effect of new openings.

Wind of change​

David Coffer, chairman of Coffer Group, said: “These figures underline the very firm indication across the entire UK market that there is definitely a wind of change in terms of consumer mentality about eating and drinking out.

“As ever, London-centric businesses are definitely seeing dramatic increases of turnover leading up to the unique celebratory period of the Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympics. There seems to be an increasing belief among operators that the 2012 Olympics will bring an excellent improvement in trade rather than aggravation.”

The influence of good weather on the eating out sector has been seen before. Last year saw the warmest September since 2006 and the equal-sixth warmest in the last 100 years, resulting in Britain’s leading pub and restaurant groups seeing a significant boost in sales​.

On the flip side, the UK pub industry is facing a potential rise in beer prices​ as the drought across the south of England is likely to cause a shortage of barley and hops.