As Britain’s casual dining sector continues to expand, albeit at slowing pace, it is clear where the focus of growth has been: the high street, according to the latest Market Growth Monitor from AlixPartners and CGA. Jamie Campbell, director at CGA, reports.
Data for this edition of the Market Growth Monitor reveals a 0.2% increase in licensed premises on high streets in the 12 months to June 2017. It is not exactly growth that sets the pulse racing, but against a national decline of 0.3% it is a welcome sign of life in the market.
And the high street is outstripping both suburban areas, where the number of licensed premises fell by 0.9% in the year to June; and rural Britain, where numbers are flat.
The trend is even starker on a five-year measure. Since June 2012, the number of licensed premises in suburban areas has fallen by 6.8%, and in rural areas by 2.3%.
But high streets have seen a 5.2% increase in numbers over the same period – equivalent to more than one net new opening a day. The shift is clear. The dynamics behind this trend on the high street are well known: a steep fall in the number of drink-led pubs and bars, outweighed by an even steeper rise in the number of restaurants.
Across Britain’s high streets, the number of drink-led premises is 6.6% lower in June 2017 than it was in June 2012 – but the number of food-led premises is 18.9% higher.
Most of the high street growth has come from casual dining brands, including many small and medium-sized operators that have cut their teeth in London before embarking on new openings beyond the capital. Managed pub groups have added to the breadth of the offer of high streets, either through new openings from the likes of JD Wetherspoon, or from the conversion of pubs once dominated by drink into food-led brands.
Growth has been pretty even across Britain, with the sharpest pace of openings, at 2.8%, to be found in the north of England. The fact that the list of ten cities with the biggest growth in licensed premises in the last year stretches all the way from Newcastle in the north east to Exeter in the south west shows that new openings have been spread far and wide round Britain.
What is making high streets so attractive to expanding restaurant operators? It is largely a reflection of general consumer trends. In both retail and leisure, there has been a gradual drift away from the suburbs to the centres of cities and towns – especially in major regional hubs like Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Leeds. A succession of central retail complexes, like Grand Central in Birmingham and Trinity (and more recently Victoria Gate) in Leeds, has added to the magnetism of these hubs.
It has come at the expense of out-of-town malls and suburban shopping areas, which have struggled to compete with the wealth of retail and leisure brands on offer along bigger high streets. The impact of internet retail has been another drag on the suburbs, leading many consumers to order their shopping from home rather than venture out to their local stores.
With the rise of delivery platforms like Deliveroo, more and more of them are choosing to eat in the comfort of their own home too, and that has impacted independent suburban restaurants in particular.
But the trend also illustrates the changing nature of the British high street. Once largely the preserve of retailers and drinking pubs, many high streets have evolved into major destinations for meals out – a shift that has breathed new life into town and city centres and regenerated night-time economies.
A more enlightened approach from some councils to change of use has helped with this transition, though there are still complaints that authorities are not doing enough to encourage the rejuvenation of high streets that restaurant operators are leading.
