Independent pub sales fall 5.5%

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The NPD Pub Tracker shows branded pubs increasing traffic from non-promoted occasions as visits prompted by deals fell 4% in the year to December.

The figures showed an overall fall in the number of visits by families of 0.5%, meaning 20% of all pub meal occasions for the year were for parties with children. Adult-only meal occasions grew 1.6%.

Weekday visits to pubs were up 2.2%, while weekend visits fell 1.2%.

Cyril Lavenant, director of Foodservice at NPD, said: “The figures confirms that independent pubs are still struggling to increase their relevance in the highly competitive foodservice market. 2015 saw healthy growth for the foodservice market in general as both promoted and non-promoted visits have increased. In contrast, promoted visits to pubs declined in both branded and independent outlets.

"This is significant, because deals and promotions are much more important to branded pubs (accounting for 39% of their traffic) than they are to the foodservice industry in general (28% of the traffic). Meanwhile, a very encouraging development for branded pubs is that they have increased their traffic through non-promoted occasions, which is a healthier and more sustainable way of growing.”