Mild weather, holidays falling midweek to drive on-trade sales: CGA

Previous sales saw an increase of 7% partly due to the said factors.

With expected mild weather on midweek events, on-trade sales may see an uplift in sales during the festive season, CGA predicts

Last year saw overall on-trade sales grew by 7% with food sales up 4.3% and drink sales up by 4.7%, based on CGA’s Christmas Report 2018.

“Mild and ice-free weather, and the way Christmas falls are two of the biggest influencing factors on whether consumers choose to eat and drink out of home over the festive period,” CGA director Karl Chessell said in a statement.

“With Christmas Day and Boxing Day again falling mid-week this year, we should see consumers tempted out – although that does depend on the weather and sentiment following the General Election,” he added.

The previous report also noted that seven out of every ten Brits go out to dine in restaurants over Christmas, whilst 64% prefer pubs, 28% visit bars and 18% go to Christmas markets.

Of some 66 million Brits flocking on-trade sites to dine over Christmas, 43% prefer to drink more than their usual and nearly half spend more on eating out.

Friday and Saturday before Christmas and New Year’s Eve are key days during the festive season. Yet, CGA sees the period being extended to three weeks of celebration as their data has shown that consumers started going out from the second week of December onwards.