Festive trading brings positive results

Kent-based Thorley Taverns saw like-for-like (LFL) sales up 20% year-on-year for the week before Christmas. Operations director Phil Thorley reported single-digit growth for the entire festive period.

He said: “Trading was slightly above expectations and much better than last year. I think the lack of weather interruptions this year played a big part. The number of customers was up, but the spend per head was down on 2010.”

Steve Haslam, of six-strong TLC Inns, reported like-for-like sales up 8%, with a solid performance from the company’s new sites. He noticed that fewer people were drinking alcohol.

“It was a difficult Christmas, trading-wise, because you’re trying to compare with last year which was very up and down because of the weather,” he said. “Apart from that, we were very pleased with the performance.”

Be@One, the 12-strong London-based cocktail bar chain, saw like-for-like sales up 4% in December compared to 2010. Co-owner Steve Locke said sales peaked in the week before Christmas, adding: “We focused on bookings in 2011, so were able to triple the number of people we booked. We also pushed with online and local marketing.”

Grand Union, which has 10 sites, saw like-for-like sales up 14% on last year, and it also opened two large sites during 2012 in Paddington and Farringdon. Marketing manager Richard Raven said the company saw

Christmas party bookings spread out throughout December, unlike last year when it was just the two weeks before Christmas.

He said: “The most interesting trend we saw was fewer bookings but larger bookings, so instead of groups of two to five, they were 20 to 50. We did push for larger bookings in 2011. We had about 30% more people, but the spend per head was lower than last year.”

The 100-strong restaurant and pub operator TCG saw strong double-digit growth compared to last year. However, it reported fewer sales on the last working day before Christmas, when usually it is described as the ‘mad Friday’ sales surge. Chief operating officer Nigel Wright said:

“The days definitely fell right for the pub and bar trade, with the two long weekends and Christmas Eve on a Saturday. That meant both the Christmas and New Year weekends saw customers spread spending across several days.”

Bar and nightclub operator Novus Leisure reported like-for-like sales up 18% in the six weeks to 1 January. It experienced record sales on New Year’s Eve, with like-for-like sales up 16% and all sites at capacity.

“We were absolutely pre-sold, pre-booked. You couldn’t get into our bars after 6pm,” said Novus chief executive Steve Richards.