Cooler weather serves up successful July for restaurant chains

Restaurant chains enjoyed a 3.8% year-on-year sales bounce in July, after hot weather and the World Cup hit revenue in 2018.

Headline figures were also buoyant for pub sales, which after benefitting from a hot, action-packed summer in 2018, saw sales slip only by 0.2% last month according to the Coffer Peach Tracker.

Karl Chessell, director of business insight consultancy CGA, which produces the tracker, in partnership with Coffer Group and RSM, said: "Considering the barnstorming July that pubs had last year, holding relatively steady this July will be seen as a good performance, and restaurant groups will be more than relieved with their sales recovery."

Restaurants outside the M25 performed slightly better than those in London, up 4.3% compared to 2.4%; while pubs in the capital outperformed those in the regions seeing 0.1% growth compared to a decline of 0.3%

Chessell added: "Following a good showing in June when collective like-for-likes across the sector grew 1.4%, the eating and drinking-out market is showing some resilience. Nevertheless, with Brexit looming, there will be real nervousness about a crash in autumn."

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