The data showed that restaurants and managed pub groups managed collective like-for-like sales for August which were up 1.3 per cent on the same month in the previous year. Restaurants performed far better than pubs, with casual dining chains seeing like-for-like sales up 4.7 per cent. In contrast, pubs saw like-for-like sales fall 0.2 per cent against August 2013.
“It has to be remembered that August last year was the hottest in 10 years, and hot sunny weather always tends to benefit the pub sector,” said Scott Elliott, the director of CGA Peach, which produces the tracker along with the Coffer Group, Baker Tilly and UBS.
“The good news is that these latest figures from 28 leading chains show that the public continues to go out and spend on eating and drinking-out, even with the unpredictability of the British weather. They just adapt their choice of venue.”
Restaurant and pubs chains in London outperformed the rest of the UK, with the like-for-like sales up 2.6 per cent against 0.9 per cent for those outside London.
Coffer Group chairman David Coffer said: “Although London continues to be an ever more sophisticated and popular location for restaurants and pubs, there is now a definite growth in regions outside the M25. This correlates to increasing prices and rentals in those areas with the effects of recession outside of London now fast diminishing in property and trading terms.”