5 January 2015

Initial Christmas trading figures looking good for pubs and restaurants

Early trading data suggests managed pubs and restaurants had a Christmas to celebrate. Initial weekly figures from the Coffer Peach Business Tracker show collective like-for-like sales for Christmas week itself were up 3.3% on last year. A full analysis of the whole six weeks of the festive period will be published by CGA Peach next week.

The Tracker data, collected from 30 leading restaurant and pub groups, shows weekly trading throughout December was ahead of 2013, with both the restaurant and pub sectors feeling the benefit of increased consumer spending. Participants have already received those figures for their own comparisons.

“All the numbers are yet to come in, but this looks like being a good performance for the market, especially as last year was seen as a ‘bumper’ Christmas being significantly up on the year before,” said Peter Martin, of CGA Peach, which produces the Tracker, in partnership with Coffer Group, Baker Tilly and UBS.

“We have yet to see the data for New Year, but if the previous Christmas week is any barometer operators will be starting 2015 in good cheer,” he added.

A full detailed breakdown of trading across the six weeks of the festive season, including comparison of London against the rest of the country, will be published next week.

About Coffer Peach Business Tracker
CGA Peach collects sales figures directly 30 leading companies. Participants include Mitchells & Butlers* (owner of Harvester, Toby, Browns, All Bar One etc), Pizza Hut, Whitbread (Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table), Pizza Express, Spirit Group (Flaming Grill, Fayre & Square), TGI Fridays, Tragus (Café Rouge, Bella Italia), Stonegate (Slug & Lettuce, Yates’), Marston’s, Gondola (Zizzi, ASK), Wagamama, YO! Sushi, Novus (Tiger Tiger), Fuller’s, Carluccio’s, Young’s, Living Ventures, Strada, Amber Taverns, Hall & Woodhouse, Gaucho, Las Iguanas, Intertain (Walkabout), Tattershall Castle Group, La Tasca, Giraffe, Loungers, Byron, Peach Pub Co and Le Bistrot Pierre. *includes Orchid Pub Co acquisition.