Average pub took £855 less over Xmas
According to market intelligence firm Oxford Partnership’s Christmas 2022 Flash Report 3 January 2023, the key festive trading days of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day saw a rise of 1.4% in sales compared to last year.
However, against pre-pandemic levels, this was down by more than a tenth (13.9%) with the biggest areas missing out on these key dates being city centre locations.
Travel disruption impact
These areas traded significantly worse, which was driven by the travel disruption over the festive period such as the ongoing rail strikes, taking place across the country.
Some 51.2m pints of draught beer and cider were sold over those five days with the average pub serving 1,353 pints.
This was 20 pints more than 2021 but 213 fewer than 2019 meaning the average pub took £855 less than pre-pandemic levels.
Moreover, the report looked at various beer and cider categories and showed core lager saw the biggest drop compared to 2019 with a 27.5% decline in sales and 10.3% against 2021.
Drinks categories
However, world beer saw a 21% rise compared to 2019 and 12.2% versus 2021 while stout was up 14% and 22% against 2019 and 2021 respectively.
The report also showed dwell time had fallen compared to 2019 as more than half (57.4%) of the 1,000 consumers surveyed previously saying they had no plans or were not sure if they would visit the on-trade over Christmas.
This equated to one less drink on average per head, according to the report, with research having revealed consumers were concerned about the cost-of-living crisis when looking to go out over the festive break.
