M&C Report’s Trade Tracker, which is supported by Torex, supplier of customer and business insight, takes a look at sector trading over the previous seven days. From a list of 40 businesses in the eating and drinking out sector, 10 give a snapshot of trading each week.
The end of July and the beginning of the better weather heralded a strong week’s trading for many operators, with some reporting the ‘best ever’ week so far this year. However, in areas of high unemployment the weather didn’t bring the increase in trade hoped for by some. Here’s what 10 different companies told M&C Report:
Jamie’s Italian
A good week for Jamie’s Italian, which is experiencing “healthy” trading conditions, with sites in Covent Garden, Bath, Oxford, Brighton, Glasgow and Portsmouth performing notably well due to their good positions. Managing director Simon Blagden was expecting to see like-for-likes up 5-10% for the last week in July, however, the chain had benefited from the recent milder weather. Blagden added that should this week’s hotter weather continue throughout the summer holiday period, sales were likely to be adversely affected.
Pub People Company
Last week saw positive results for the North East of England-based Pub People Company, with like-for-likes up 16.6% in sites with a food offering, whereas wet-only bars produced just a 2% increase. A community-based operator, with sales coming predominately from drinks, operations director Andrew Crawford said investment in the estate, namely £200,000 on refurbishing five sites since December, had reaped rewards. Additionally, the creation of new menus with a greater emphasis on using local food suppliers and providing quality, but good value, offerings had provided the company with a strong differential and allowed it to trade well against its competitors. A strong focus on web and social networking was producing results too, with pubs being encouraged to use Facebook to communicate with customers, producing a positive impact on sales, said Crawford.
Living Ventures
Restaurant and bar group Living Ventures has a good week, with its Italian restaurant and bar chain Gusto benefiting from the recent, hotter, weather. Across other Living Ventures brands, Blackhouse, the steak house chain, was trading consistently well due to targeted sales and marketing effort. “We see swings when weather is better, from steakhouse to lighter Italian food, but business across the board is holding well,” said Living Ventures’ finance director Andrew Haigh. “Like-for-likes have been positive all year.”
Market Town Taverns
Modest growth is reported by North and West Yorkshire pub operator, Market Town Taverns, with its niche customer offering remaining popular. Some units were trading significantly better than others, and this, said the managing director Ian Fozard, was predominately down to people, rather than extraneous factors such as weather and general economic conditions. “Some of our units are showing strong growth but some others aren’t, and that’s down to local issues which we know about and need to fix.” Fozard stressed that as a 15-strong operator of individual, unique but high quality outlets, the success of any individual site was highly reliant on getting a great team of people in place.
Barburrito
The Mexican restaurant operator, with a strong focus on its green credentials, including reducing waste, recycling and energy saving, is trading well, 15-20% up year-on-year, which managing director Morgan Davies, attributes to the brand rather than the economy: “We have invested heavily in the brand in the last six months, and we are seeing results.” Overall July was a good month, with sites benefiting from the school holidays and better weather. However, Davies added that the holiday season could herald a “trickier” time ahead for Barburrito, as office workers in its key city locations, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, departed for their annual holidays.
Head of Steam
Trading is difficult for this nine-strong, predominately managed NE-based chain. “In general terms, it is very tough for us. Our turnover is quite variably, with one newly refurbished site ‘up’ a little compared to this period last year, while others are considerably down,” said managing director Tony Brookes. “This year we are experiencing a steady decline, but we are fighting hard against it, using all our marketing tools and experience.” Head of Steam operates in a region with a high public sector workforce, which is experiencing high levels of redundancies, explained Brookes, adding that rising unemployment and cheap supermarket booze was hitting his pub business hard.
Loungers
Loungers reported its busiest ever week for the end of July, with Seco Lounge in Plymouth taking £40,000 gross, compared to the more usual low- to mid-£30,000s figures. “We are trading very strongly at the moment. The last 10 to 12 weeks have been very good for us,” said managing director Alex Reilley, adding that July had produced the second ‘best ever’ week’s trading for Loungers, an operator of 17 pubs and bars in the West of England. Favourable weather - ‘non-descript, dry but grey’, plus university graduations in Southampton, massively bumped up sales for the group last week. “I’ve seen a lot of reports about a slow down in spending and like-for-like growth, but our growth remains strong. Whether a change in the weather will affect this, we can only wait and see,” concluded Reilley.
Bulldog
The last week in July (Saturday to Saturday) saw trading 15% up compared to same period last year for the five pub, Lincolnshire-based coaching inn operator. July as a whole was well up on 2010 figures, producing like-for-likes up 13.01%. Last week also produced the ‘best ever’ week for the White Hart in Boston, which took more than £30,000 compared to an average £25,000 per week. Managing director Kevin Charity put the success down to highly focussed marketing with good, sensible offers that aimed to attract and excite rather than discount. “We not discounting, we are putting on quality offers, like a range of new bottle beers and exciting dishes on our menus. We’ve not got one discounted, drink-led promotions,” added Charity.
Butcombe Brewery
Positive trading figures from West Country brewer and pub owner, Butcombe Brewery, with July’s like-for-likes for its pub business up 4% on 2010 figures. In addition, three new, big sites in Bath, Cheltenham and Frome, bought massive dividends to the business, bringing a further 42% increase in trade compared with the same period in 2010. Good, outside space is key to producing good results, according to the managing director Guy Newell, adding that Butcombe had been making investments in outdoor areas to give the pubs a good advantage over the competition. “We’re feeling pretty bullish at the moment, we’ve an awful lot going on. We are over-achieving on our budgets four months into this financial year, and that’s on a budget set at 4% increase on last year.”
Grand Union Group
It has been a great week for Grand Union, in fact, it’s been the best week the 12-pub operator has had this year due to the good weather. Turnover was up 32% on last year with the London-based GU Brixton trading very well at £62,000 for the week and GU Paddington breaking £40,000 for the first time. Managing director Adam Marshall said that even the ‘winter trading’ trading sites were maintaining good like-for-likes, which was “encouraging”. With good weather forecast for all of this week, Grand Union is expecting another record week. “When the sun shines we make hay!” added Marshall.
