Rugby World Cup fails to score more business for pubs and restaurants

Like-for-like sales across managed pubs and restaurants fell -0.6% throughout October, according to new figures from the Coffer Peach Business Tracker. 

Restaurants faced collective like-for-like falls of -0.7%, whilst pub sales saw a fall of -0.6% against the same month of last year. Wet-led pubs performed marginally better than their counterparts, with a 0.3% increase in like-for-like sales. 

The tracker said the early showing times of the games might explain the decrease in sales throughout the month. 

Karl Chessell, director of CGA, said: “There was no big boost coming from customers wanting to watch the rugby on TV in the bar – probably due to the early morning kick-offs.

“October is usually a quiet month in the eating and drinking out world – the lull before the Christmas rush – and so it has proved. Essentially, we are continuing to see a flat market. People are still going out, but there is no real growth.”

Pubs and restaurants in London fared slightly worse than sites outside the capital, with a decline of -0.9% compared to a regional sales dip of -0.5%.

Mark Sheehan, managing director of CCL, said: “The figures show that businesses outside the M25 did better than those in the Capital. 

“However, it is worth noting that although it looks like London is underperforming, the strength of the London market is being driven by independents not captured by the stats, rather than branded concepts.”

He added: “The eating and drinking-out market is relatively stable despite dampened consumer confidence. This is reflecting the combined political and economic uncertainty not seen since the middle of the last century.”

The Coffer Peach Tracker, which analyses performance data from 58 operating groups across the UK, did reveal that total sales, including the effect of net new openings, were up 2.3% from last October.