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Easter weekend increased sales in the on-trade, but overall March saw a decline in sales

Published:  16 April, 2015

Easter weekend saw like-for-like on-trade sales increase 5.1% compared to 2014, but overall March was trading down, according to the most recent CGA Peach figures.

For the first time almost two years like-for-like sales declined on average 0.3% compared to March 2014 figures.

Peter Martin, the vice president of CGA Peach said: "The particularly strong Easter showing right at the start of April will have helped overcome any disappointment among operators with the essentially flat performance in March - with restaurant chains having the most to feel happy about."

CGA Peach in partnership with the Coffer Group, Baker Tilly and UBS produce the figures for the Coffer Peach Business tracker.

Casual dining establishments were the big winners over the Easter weekend seeing the largest increase of like-for-like sales up 7.6% over last year's Easter weekend.

Martin predicts that people may have watched their spending throughout March dragging on the month's overall performance so that they could splash their cash over the Easter weekend. He said: "Since Christmas sales growth has been slow but steady, so the Easter figures will be particularly welcome - and it may be that the more disappointing March numbers are down to people waiting for Easter to go out in force to eat and drink."

Pubs are having a harder time in the sector than restaurant groups, possibly because the novelty of recent investments in revamping pubs across the UK over the past few years has worn off.  

"So far this year, restaurant groups have in general been out-performing pubs. In March they still saw like-for-likes edge up 0.7%, while pubs were down 0.7%, with pub restaurants particularly having a tougher time. This may in part be down to the investment cycle with the effect of much of the spending on pub revamps in recent years now beginning to wear off," said Martin.

Despite the declining figures for March, overall the sector has seen been growing steadily with 23 consecutive months of growth leading up to last month. Over the full 12 months though the end of March 2015 like-or-like sales are up 2.0% compared to the previous year.

"Eating and drinking out is benefiting from very long term growth. We have seen an evolution of the market with many structural changes - particularly with the continued re-positioning of many pubs. During March we saw a small decline in like-for-likes, however, this was compensated by strong Easter trading - both of which showing the influence the weather has on our sector. The long term trend remains very strong," said Mark Sheehan, managing director of Coffer Corporate Leisure.

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