A special weekly edition of the Hospitality Business Tracker – produced by CGA by NIQ, in partnership with RSM UK – shows Britain’s leading hospitality groups recorded year-on-year sales growth of 2.7% in the week commencing 16th December 2024, compared to the week commencing 18th December 2023.
A confluence of Christmas parties, late-night sporting events, and convenient bank holiday scheduling all contributed to the strongest performance seen among the managed bars segment all year, which saw 20.5% growth.
The Tracker notes that this will be a particularly welcome boost for the beleaguered sector, which has spent most of the past year in decline.
Pubs, meanwhile, only saw minor growth of 0.7%.
The Tracker observes that with year-on-year sales failing to meet inflation in six of the past 11 months, and with operators facing further financial pressures as a result of the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget, this Christmas carried the burden to make up for strained trading in the previous year and bolster business for the year ahead.
“Like-for-like sales growth of 2.7% in week commencing 16th December performance may not have been stunning,” it says.
“But with sales beating recent inflationary benchmarks it has been a week of solid performance.”