Euros puts a dampener on restaurant sales

Euros-football-tournament-puts-a-dampener-on-restaurant-sales.jpg
Credit: Getty / lechatnoir

Restaurants saw a steep decline in sales last month as consumers shifted their spend towards pubs during the 2024 Euros tournament.

The latest CGA RSM Hospitality Business Tracker shows that like-for-like sales across Britain's top restaurant groups dropped from +4.7% in June to -2.1% in July.

Overall, year-on-year growth across the managed hospitality sector stood at 1.5% in July 2024, down from June’s rate of 2.9%.

As July started with the peak of the 2024 Euro’s, including the quarter, semi-final and final games, Britain’s pubs enjoyed a more positive outcome from the tournament than the England team, experiencing like-for-like growth of 4.9%.

Pubs within the M25 performed especially well with 9.9% like-for-like growth.

Meanwhile, the on-the-go segment also saw an uptick in sales with like-for-like growth of 1.5%.

“With most positive growth being seen in the pub sector in July, this had a knock-on effect to other hospitality venues as they saw like-for-like drops in performance,” says Karl Chessell, CGA director. 

“For hospitality as a whole, this isn’t necessarily a negative thing. The uplifts seen based on key events within the month show that whilst the cost-of-living pressures are still ongoing, consumers are still making those all-important visits to hospitality venues.

“As we move into the back end of Summer, with warmer weather, and an upcoming Bank Holiday at the end of the month – we hope to see growth spread more equally across key segments.”