Figures from Meaningful Vision found pub footfall fell 4.8% in June compared with the same month last year.
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The firm, which tracks customer visits, pricing, promotions and openings across 60,000 outlets operated by the UK’s top 300 fast food, pub and casual dining brands, said June marked the smallest monthly decline for pubs so far this year.
However, pubs and restaurants remained under pressure across the second quarter, with customer visits down 7% year on year.
World Cup impact
Meaningful Vision CEO Maria Vanifatova said: “The start of the World Cup provided a sentiment boost and filled pubs for live screenings, but the uplift was not strong enough to reverse the broader downward trend for the sector.
“More widely, the UK foodservice industry is still struggling, as consumers reduce how often they eat and drink out, while food and labour costs continue to rise, putting significant pressure on profits.”
The data comes after The Morning Advertiser (MA) reported separate figures from Dojo showing UK pub and bar spending rose 16% during the World Cup compared with the previous month.
Dojo also found spending for England’s semi final against Argentina was up 78% against a typical Wednesday, while Heineken UK’s managed operator pubs reported total sales up 178% compared with the same date last year.
The latest Meaningful Vision figures suggest higher spend around key fixtures did not translate into a wider recovery in visits across the sector.
Wider pressure
Across fast food, casual dining and pubs, customer traffic fell 2.1% in the second quarter.
Fast food was down 0.9% across the first half of the year, although June marked its first month of growth in 2026, with visits up 0.3%. Performance varied by category, with chicken shops seeing 10.5% growth between January and June, while burger restaurants recorded a 4% drop in visits.
Only five of 13 UK regions saw customer visits rise in the first half of the year, with growth concentrated in the South East, South West, London and Greater London, alongside Northern Ireland.
Meaningful Vision said the south of England may have benefited from staycations as consumers faced higher costs for overseas travel.
Restaurant price growth remained higher than retail, at 6.8% year on year, although it started to slow from March.
Vanifatova added: “February and April were the toughest periods for the industry, with an almost 3% decline across the fast food, restaurant and pub market. But June did bring around a relative improvement across all sub sectors, pushing fast food back into positive territory. The hope will be that this can continue into the second half of the year, with price growth beginning to stabilise.”
