Data from the latest CGA RSM Hospitality Business Tracker found that managed pubs outperformed restaurants throughout the first half of the year, and they again achieved the best growth of the Tracker’s segments in July, at 0.6%.
The Tracker said pubs were boosted by periods of warm weather in many parts of Britain, but comparisons were held down by the Euro 2024 football tournament.
It followed level sales in June and a drop of 1 % in May.
The Tracker’s comparisons have now been static or negative in five of the first seven months of 2025.
Consumer confidence
In addition, it found bar sales were down by 4.3% from July 2024.
Managed restaurant groups lagged pubs with 0.2% growth, but this was the first year-on-year increase since December 2024.
The report said this was “a very tentative sign” that consumer confidence is moving in the right direction.
Growth inside and outside the M25 stood at +0.7% and -0.3% respectively—the first time since March that London has outperformed the rest of the country.
The Tracker—produced by CGA by NIQ in partnership with RSM UK—also provided some more positive indicators of total sales in hospitality, including at venues opened by groups in the last 12 months.
These venues were 3.2% ahead of the same month in 2024 and broadly in line with the UK’s rate of inflation in 2025, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index.
Trading challenges
CGA by NIQ hospitality operators and food director EMEA Karl Chessell said: “The summer has brought little respite from the intense trading challenges facing hospitality, and real-terms growth is elusive.
“Pubs can be more satisfied than restaurant groups, which have had to work very hard to sustain footfall and cope with more sharp rises in the costs of labour and food.”
RSM UK head of leisure and hospitality Saxon Moseley added: “July’s results underscore the sector’s ongoing struggles, with performance largely flat or in decline.
“It’s not all bad news though - while pubs saw a small uptick in growth, this was set against a UEFA Euro finals fuelled boost last year, so the underlying growth is stronger than it appears.”
CGA by NIQ collected sales figures directly from 121 leading managed groups for July’s edition of the CGA RSM Hospitality Business Tracker.
