The pub sector grew visits from families faster than the wider market for the year to March but visits driven by promotion took another fall.
The NPD Group, which provides the Pub Tracker figures to MCA, said the question should be asked as to whether “deals have lost relevance for pubs”.
The figures show that the pub sector grew visits at a slower pace than the wider foodservice market during the year at 1% and 1.5% respectively. Branded Pubs grew visits by 5% while Independents saw their traffic decline again by 5.8%.
Weekday visits to the pub were up 2,1% while weekend visits fell 0.9%.
Visits prompted by deals and promotions declined by 1%, meaning 30.8% of all visits to a pub were driven by deals/promotions.
Adult-only meal occasions decreased year on year by 0.9% while parties with children of all ages saw an increase of 4.5% and accounted for 20.2% of all pub meal occasions for the year to March.
Cyril Lavenant, director of Foodservice UK at NPD, said: “The market continues to show a very balanced growth, where both promoted and non-promoted occasions have increased this year. However, deals/promotions are much more important to branded pubs (39.6% of their traffic) than they are to foodservice (27.8% of the traffic). Although pubs have seen traffic grow through non-promoted occasions - a very good sign for the sector - the decline of promoted occasions at pubs raises an important question: Have deals lost relevance in pubs?
“Nonetheless, this year, pubs have shown one of the strongest growth rates in family-based traffic, outpacing the total market, which saw family visits grow by 4.2%.
“A continued positive consumer confidence index, and an earlier Easter season this year, have encouraged families to treat themselves out of home more often.
“The challenge is now to continuously improve the family experience whilst increasing the appeal towards adults only. ”
