Let’s get this party restarted! Sales in Britain’s pubs, bars and nightclubs were almost back to pre-pandemic levels in July.
The Coffer CGA Business Tracker showed total sales in July were just 6% lower than in July 2019, with restaurant sales down just 2%, while drink-led (“wet” in pub trade jargon) pubs’ takings were down 9%; pub restaurants’ sales were down 8% on pre-pandemic levels while bars, which benefited from the relaxation of restrictions on late-night opening, saw sales come up just 3% shy of July 2019 levels.
The work from home trend still seems to be hitting London hard, with sales within the M25 motorway down 15% on two years earlier compared to a 2% decline elsewhere in the country.
It was “another steady month of recovery for hospitality”, said Karl Chessell, the director of hospitality operations and food for Europe, Middle East and Africa at research agency CGA.
“Restaurants are enjoying the release of latent demand for meals out, and the return of nightclubs and late-night bars was a milestone in the journey back to normality for the drinking out sector. Trading conditions remain difficult though, and the 20% drop in rolling sales since July 2020 highlights COVID-19’s heavy toll on the sector and the need for continued support. On top of major operational challenges, it means that not all businesses are out of the woods yet,” Chessell said.
Yesterday, CGA revealed just under 5,000 of Britain’s licensed premises opened their doors again in July to bring the sector to more than nine-tenths of its capacity. The wave of reopenings was partly triggered by the easing of some lockdown restrictions in England on 19 July, which allowed many venues, especially nightclubs and late-night bars, to trade for the first time since March 2020.
Across Britain, 98,790 licensed premises were open by the end of July—93.0% of the total known sites, CGA reported in its Market Recovery Monitor.