The June heatwave and optimism around the World Cup brought about an uplift in consumer activity, with the biggest rise in eating out participation for 12 months, MCA’s Eating Out Panel reveals.
The data for June 2018 showed a rise in participation from 92.8% in June 2017 to to 94.3% in June 2018 – a rise of 1.5 percentage points (pp).
There was growing number of visits for both breakfast (up 8% to an average of 2.4 visits a month) and dinner (up 4% to an average of 2.4 visits a month) compared to June 2017, when weather was far more mixed.
However there was a third consecutive month of declining visit frequency, with participation down 1% to an average of four visits a month.
Average spend was up at breakfast (5%), lunch (2%) and dinner (1%).
While the hot Summer has boosted wet-led sales, pubs have been some of the hardest hit by falling lunch trade, losing share to sandwich shops and being toppled by fast food as the most visited lunch channel.
Independent restaurants also lost ground to fast food at dinner, and were down 4pp in share of visits by daypart.
