Average dwell time in venues reached 150 minutes during the festive trading period, the latest figures from real-time market intelligence firm Oxford Partnership showed.
Meanwhile, occupancy levels increased to 63.9% and average spend per head climbed to £26.53, the highest level recorded in 2025. However, spend intensity remained constrained, as higher headline spend was spread across longer visits.
Weekly opening hours also remained steady at 64.5 hours, with lunch, evening and late-night occasions capturing festive trade.
Strong engagement
The number of operating venues also rose to 100,018, according to the data, lifting the number back above the 100,000 mark as temporary and marginal sites returned for the festive period.
Despite strong engagement, cost pressures remained acute. Elevated energy prices, wage inflation, higher National Insurance contributions and ongoing food and drink input costs continued to weigh on profitability, with additional festive staffing and utility usage further diluting gains.
For the beer category, year-to-date performance continued to be driven by premiumisation, with stout up 9.1% year to date, benefiting from strong winter relevance and growing mainstream appeal.
Elsewhere, Premium and World Lager remained in growth, while craft and ale continued to face pressure as consumers narrow repertoires and prioritise trusted choices.
Challenging environment
Analysis of the Top 25 highest-selling draught beer and cider days of 2025 showed Christmas Eve was the single biggest trading day of the year, delivering approximately 2.75m pints across around 10,000 outlets.
It means Christmas trading helped stabilise performance but didn’t reset margins as cost pressures prevailed, Oxford Partnership CEO Alison Jordan noted.
She continued: “In a challenging trading environment, festive performance remains structurally essential to annual outcomes for the UK On Trade.
“What we didn’t see was a step-change in rate of sale. People spent more overall, but not faster, which limits the margin upside for operators.”
