Pubs reap rewards of eating out trend

By Lesley Foottit

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Drink Food and drink Deloitte

Pubs are taking the second largest market share of drinking and dining out occasions, according to The Taste of the Nation survey by Deloitte and BDRC.

Beaten only by coffee and sandwich shop trade, pubs still benefitted from an average 4.2 visits per person in spring, 4.6 in autumn and a projected 4.5 in the next six months.

Food-led outings to pubs increased across all regions and demographics with the highest rise in the south-west by men.

Even fine dining saw a 32% increase in dining out occasions over the last six months, indicating that consumers are still willing to spend on quality.

However, average spend was down.

Londoners are still going out more than other regions by a third, compared to its nearest region. Deloitte concluded this represents the capital’s “going out culture” and the range and volume of outlets available.

Overall, consumers are going out 12% more than in the previous six months and 3% more than they had predicted. Deloitte suggested this could be due to the prolonged warm weather the UK enjoyed into October.

The average UK consumer has been going out for food and drink 19.7 times a month — 2.2 occasions more than six months ago. The age group 25 to 34 are going out the most with around 30 occasions a month with spend per head up by 4p.

Consumers are expected to go out 1.4% less in the coming months with the south-west and drink-led occasions anticipated to see the highest rises.

Men go out over 50% more than women, particularly for drinking occasions.

Vouchers and on-site deals remain popular, although almost one in five consumers said they would stop visiting outlets if they could not use a discount.

However, Deloitte questioned whether outlets would make more money from the 82% of customers that would continue to visit at full price rather than continue to attract the 18% of bargain hunters.

Overall, the survey forecasts a decrease in going out but with Christmas coming it expects the market to stay fairly “robust”.

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