London pubs in particular were the biggest beneficiaries of the recent hot spell,with like-for-likes at managed pub groups up 7.6 per cent on July last year, and drink-led venues up a massive 9.5 per cent.
Restaurant groups in the capital saw a sales increase of 2.6 per cent, demonstrating a revival in trade after last year’s pre-Olympic sales slump.
“We had two forces at work last month – fantastic hot weather, which was good for pubs, and a rebound in the London market in general after the lull last July caused by the run up to the Olympics,” said Peter Martin of CGA Peach.
“The weather always has an effect on trading, with good weather generally favouring pubs and poor conditions better for restaurants, as we’ve just seen. In addition, the impact of the Olympics will continue with August’s trading comparisons.
Word of warning
Outside of London, managed pubs saw collective like-for-likes up 2.9% on last July, with drink-led pubs up 5.7 per cent. The ‘hospitable heatwave’didn’t seem to have the similar positive effects for restaurants outside of the M25, with a 5.4 per cent like-for-like drop.
This decrease should make pub and restaurant groups a little cautious about drawing too many positive conclusions, according to Martin. “Outside of London trading was essentially flat in July, and looking at the long-term trend, collective like-for-likes for the 12 months up to the end of July were running at just 0.9 per cent up on the previous 12 months for the market as a whole, with total sales up 4 per cent,” he said.
“Pubs will no doubt take comfort from July’s particularly strong trading. But looking at the longer-term trend, and stripping out the bullish London market, pubs that rely on drinks sales are showing a 1.1 per cent year-on-year decline. It is still a tricky market out there.”
Film fans
Trevor Watson, director at Davis Coffer Lyons, believes that the drop in like-for-likes could, in part, be related to the UK cinema industry.
“The disappointing casual dining stats are likely to be partly due to a rather indifferent output of new film releases failing to sustain leisure park and cinema visitor numbers,” he said. “The difficulty in drawing reliable comparisons with 2012 - the Olympic year - is on-going. As expected, the figures are very positive for the drink-led sector and the London market.”
The Coffer Peach Tracker industry sales monitor for the UK pub and restaurant sector collects and analyses monthly performance data from 27 operating groups including Mitchells & Butlers, Tragus and Whitbread.