Regional recovery in dining out market strengthens

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 02 February, 2015

Consumers in Wales and the north and east of England ate out more frequently than Londoners over Christmas, strengthening views that a regional recovery is happening.

This tallies with Christmas sales figures for independent wine merchants, which showed businesses outside of London recording the strongest growth. Cheshire operator Corks Out said sales grew 26% over Christmas, Belfast's Direct Wine Shipments cited a 12% increase while Christopher Piper Wines in the south west said retail sales were up 16%.

According to a YouGov survey of 2,194 consumers carried out for Horizons, it appears consumer confidence is increasing as eating out rates have improved - 71% consumers said they had eaten out in the two weeks preceding January 4-5, compared to 69% in the same period last year.

The survey showed that on average respondents had eaten out 1.94 times, up from 1.8 times a year ago. Respondents who had eaten out spent an average of £14.48, including drinks, up from £14.41 last year.

Consumers also said they spent more when they dined out over Christmas than during the summer - when the average spend was £12.72.

Emma Read, Horizons' director of marketing and business development, said: "What's encouraging is that the eating out figures were stronger in the regions than they were in London. Also, given it was Christmas when many people prefer to eat and entertain at home, more respondents said they were tempted to eat out."

The survey also showed that 51% of respondents opted for more formal venues such as restaurants and pub-restaurants, with 51% of eating out accounted for by these venues, compared with 47% six months ago.

JD Wetherspoon was the most commonly cited venue of respondents who had eaten in a pub restaurant (14%), with Brewers Fayre (8%) and Harvester (7%) second and third respectively from a given list.

Some 31% of respondents cited a special occasion as a reason for eating out, compared with 21% who gave this as their reason for eating out in June 2014. Meeting friends was the second most commonly mentioned reason for eating out at 26%, a similar figure to that of six months ago (26%). Convenience was mentioned by 23%, down from 27% six months ago.

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