Visits to pubs, bars and restaurants fell over the Christmas period but spending increased, according to data from CGA Strategy.
The research showed visits to the UK’s on-trade were down by 9% on the same period in 2014 with key trading periods particularly badly hit. The weekend of what is now known as ‘Mad Friday’ saw 4.2 million fewer visits in 2015, which CGA said was possibly influenced by negative media coverage.
But customers were spending more on average when they went out, leading to year on year growth of 2.9% in value terms. Sales on Christmas Day were up by 3.7% year on year.
CGA Strategy’s figures chime with separate data from the Coffer Peach Business Tracker, which identified solid trading in the two weeks over Christmas and New Year following a sluggish start to December. Over the six weeks to 3 January, the Tracker shows that managed pub and bar businesses saw a 3.1% rise in sales against the same period a year earlier.
The research indicates that nearly one in three consumers visited a Christmas market in 2015, with 1.2 million people going to a pop-up bar.
CGA Strategy’s study also reveals significant changes in consumer behaviour at Christmas. They include a decline in pub and bar visits over the festive season from a demographic that CGA terms ‘The Avoider’. A second consumer type is ‘The Celebrator’, who ordinarily tend to drink less and are disengaged with brands, but who visit pubs and bars more often at Christmas. The third is ‘The Reliable’, a generally young demographic who visits pubs and bars regularly, and slightly more often over Christmas.
CGA Strategy’s client services director Rachel Perryman said: “Slower footfall made it a challenging Christmas for pub and bar businesses, but they emerged from it with decent sales growth. Our research shows the complexity of the festive market and how consumer behaviour varies over the festive season. It means operators need to be sure what their customers want from their experiences and tailor their sales and marketing strategies accordingly.”
