Britain’s managed pubs, bars and restaurants saw like-for-like sales fall 0.9 per cent in September as the public reduced spending on eating and drinking out, figures from the Coffer Peach Business Tracker revealed.
Restaurants in London were worst affected, suffering a 3.2 per cent fall in collective like-for-like sales compared to September last year.
Across the sector, trading was generally better outside the M25, down just 0.7 per cent, compared to a fall of 1.6 per cent in the capital.
“The negative September numbers follow on from generally flat trading across the summer – August was ahead just 0.2 per cent, with London again feeling the pinch more – and will do little to help already fragile business confidence among operators,” said Peter Martin, vice president of CGA, the business insight consultancy that produces the tracker in partnership with Coffer Group and RSM.
CGA’s latest Business Confidence Survey, published earlier this month, showed that while 66 per cent of bosses in the sector were optimistic about prospects for their own company, only a third (34 per cent) were upbeat about prospects for the market as a whole, down from 43 per cent in May.
Paul Newman, head of leisure and hospitality at RSM, added: “There’s no getting away from the fact that September has been a fairly dismal month for casual dining operators, especially in the capital.
“These sales numbers continue to be underpinned by the growing influence of food delivery and fierce discounting between brands. Operators will hope that a focus on premiumisation over the festive period will help to claw back some of this lost margin.”
Despite the disappointing figures, Martin pointed out that the “weaker eating-out numbers come in a month when retail sales grew, fuelled in part by higher food prices in supermarkets, which may have helped dampened out-of-home eating.”
He added that while pubs and restaurants had a tough month, pubs and bars in London traded relatively better, down just 0.5 per cent. Meanwhile, restaurants away from the capital saw like-for-likes grow marginally last month, up 0.2 per cent.
Total sales growth in September among the 38 companies in the tracker cohort was 2.6 per cent, compared to the same month last year, reflecting the continuing, if much more subdued, effect of new openings.
“The one positive point is that consumers are still going out to eat and drink, and although sales are sluggish and hard won at least they are not suffering the way other parts of the economy are, such as car sales,” Martin said.
