Pub and restaurant sales growth stagnant in May: study
Restaurant chains saw better performance than pubs and bars this month.
Pub and restaurant groups saw flat sales growth in May year-on-year, according to the CGA’s Coffer Peach Business Tracker.
Regionally, London saw like-for-like sales down 0.6% whilst transactions outside the M25 rose by a marginal 0.2%. Restaurant chains performed better than pubs and bars as like-for like sales grew 3.1%, against May last year. Pub and bar groups’s like-for-like sales dipped 1.7%, with drink and food sales down 2.4% and 1.6% respectively.
“The public still went out to eat and drink, but only at the same level as last May. Whilst this could initially seem like bad news for the market, especially after the positive growth seen in March and April, we have to remember that May 2017 benefitted from consistently good weather and the royal wedding, both boosting performance,” said Karl Chessell, director of CGA.
Total sales growth across the 52 companies in the Tracker, which include the effect of net new openings since this time last year rose by 2.4% compared to last May.
Similarly, longer-term underlying like-for-like growth for the Tracker cohort, which represents both large and small groups, reached 1.7% for the 12 months to the end of May.
