Delivery and takeaway sales down again year-on-year in April but decline slows

Britain’s leading managed restaurant groups saw delivery and takeaway sales drop 1% year-on-year in April, the new Hospitality at Home Tracker from CGA by NIQ shows.

Year-on-year trading has been negative for 17 months in a row following a boom in 2020 and 2021 as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns. Deliveries and takeaways by value attracted 14% of groups’ total sales in April, sharply down from 24% in April 2022.

However, the tracker indicated that year-on-year comparisons were easing. April’s 1% decline compared with 6% in February and 3% in March, raising confidence that demand for deliveries and takeaways was starting to stabilise despite ongoing pressure on consumers’ spending.

Year-on-year trading has been partly protected by rising menu prices, while volumes have fallen significantly. Groups’ delivery order volumes in April were 10% below the same month in 2022, while takeaway and click-and-collect orders contracted by 9%. With inflation in double digits, the value of trading was much further behind in real terms.

Karl Chessell, CGA’s director – hospitality operators and food, EMEA, said: “Seventeen successive year-on-year drops in delivery and takeaway sales partly reflects the steady return of consumers to restaurants since late 2021. But with our Coffer CGA Business Tracker showing only modest growth in eat-in sales during that time, amid very high inflation, there is no escaping the fact that total sales have been significantly down in real terms.

"Conditions will remain challenging for some time, but with signs that inflation and household bills may ease in the second half of 2023 we remain very confident about the long-term outlook for hospitality.”

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