World Cup boosts drink sales but dining suffers

The World Cup provided a boost for dinks-led pubs, with sales up 2.4% on last year according to the Coffer Peach Business Tracker.

However, restaurant chains saw sales dip compared with June last year as diners preferred to focus on the football. Sales in the first two World Cup weeks were down between three and five percent at the 28 restaurant chains surveyed, though across the month as a whole like for like sales were flat as diners returned after the excitement of the early rounds.

England's early exit did no favours for pubs, which saw a sales boost of 10.9% in the week of the first group match, dropping to 2.8% over the month, with food sales flat.

Peter Martin of CGA Peach said: "The truth is that while big set-piece events like the World Cup may boost part of the market, the overall effect on eating and drinking out is much more muted."

He added that despite the distortion of the Word Cup, combined like for like growth of 0.4% was still an improvement on the 0.2% growth seen in May.

"That result means that he 28 companies now contributing to the Tracker have collectively seen positive like-for-like sales for each of the past 15 months," Martin said. "Growth may not be exceptional but it is steady."

Regionally, trading was strongest in London. Like for like sales were up 1.5% in the capital, while elsewhere they were down 0.3% on last June.

Mark Sheehan, managing director of Coffer Corporate Leisure, said: "These results are positive, especially considering the eating-out market had to contend with sport on television every night from 13 June onwards. While pubs had a short term boost from England's brief appearance, for them too it was a challenging month.

"A 15th consecutive month of growth shows the underlying resilience of the eating and drinking-out markets as we look forward to a strong period of further growth."

The companies contributing to the tracker include the likes of: Mitchells & Butlers, Whitbread, TGI Fridays, Wagamama, and Las Iguanas.

May proves tougher for restaurants and pubs but sales growth continues >>