Drinks sales 2% up vs 2021 over Halloween

For the sixth week in a row, on-premise trade was ahead of the previous year, though they dipped slightly from the 6% growth shown in the previous tracker​.

However, while the tracker showed promising growth over the Halloween period, especially auspicious with the festive period on the horizon, the nation’s current rates of inflation have continued to hold sales back, according to CGA​.

Long way to go

CGA managing director UK and Ireland Johnathan Jones said: “Spending is pretty restrained at the moment, but Halloween showed pubs and bars are still central to people’s big social occasions.

“This bodes well for the Christmas season, though with costs and interest rates continuing to rise, there is a long way to go before the on premise reaches real-terms growth after adjustments for inflation.”

Despite starting off on a 9% year-on-year decline on Sunday 23 October, sales were up every other day of the week, peaking at 13% and 11% on Wednesday and Thursday (26 and 27 October) respectively.

While Fridays and Saturdays have been slower for sales than midweek in the last few months, as some people cut back on big nights out, Halloween brought more consumers out to pubs and bars with sales up 6% on Friday 28 October and 5% on Saturday 29 October.

Strong connection  

Continuing the pattern of recent weeks beer​ (up 15%) and cider​ (up 19%) were the best performing drinks categories year-on-year.

Soft drinks (up 5%) and wine (up 7%) were also in good growth, though spirits​ (down 10%) suffered from tough comparatives to slip behind the same week in 2021, despite their strong connection with Halloween occasions.

Jones added: “Year-on-year growth is creeping up towards the level of inflation.
“But with the economy and consumer confidence both fragile, operators and suppliers will have to keep working hard to attract people to the on premise over the festive season.”