According to the latest Coffer Peach Business Tracker, the sport and hot weather saw like-for-like sales at pub and bar groups rise 2.8% year-on-year.
The report is based on data from 45 hospitality chains, including Wagamama, Byron, and Casual Dining Group – which includes Café Rouge, Bella Italia and Las Iguanas.
“A month of sunshine and the World Cup may be good news for drinks led businesses but was always going to be tougher for food led operators,” says Paul Newman, head of leisure and hospitality at RSM - which produces the Tracker in partnership with CGA and Coffer Group.
“However, there will be a sense of optimism for many restaurants with the year on year fall at less than 2%. With the sun set to shine for the rest of July, it could turn out to be a bumper summer for pubs and bars as they look to take the lion’s share of consumer spending.”
London outperformed the rest of the country in June, with pub sales up 3.7% and restaurants down just 0.4%, compared to a 2.3% like-for-like decline outside the M25.
Overall, like-for-like growth for the 45 companies in the Tracker is slowly improving after a tough period, running at 0.7% for the 12 months to the end of June, and up from 0.6% at the end of May.