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.
September remains a mixed bag for many, with hopes high that trade will settle back into the more usual trading patterns expected at this time of year. The disappointing summer weather is long forgotten and most are looking forward to the half-term holidays next month, but in the meantime, everyone wants more stability and less fluctuation. Here’s what 10 different companies told M&C Report:
Snug Bar
A transient student market, with students leaving home to return to their university towns, resulted in a dip in sales last week for Snug Bar, in what has otherwise been a very buoyant September. The Snug Bar’s four cocktail venues in Cambridge, Hertford and St Albans were trading 20% up against last year for the first two weeks of September, but dropped to 13% up in week three. “It’s a little drop, but we will recover in weeks three to four. The payroll week sees a 10% positive fluctuation historically for us, so the week commencing 26 September will see a further uplift in sales,” said co-founder Giles Fry. Commenting on rising student debts and how this could affect the Snug Bar operation, Fry said there was a benefit in that more students would need part-time work, and that he believed that whatever the costs or debt implications, students would continue to go out and have a good time. “Whether it’s a £20,000 or £60,000 loan, I don’t believe students think too much about it. I have a former student working for me who has a £38,000 student debt and is paying it back at £3.20 a week, which is minimal. He’s left thinking that he should have gone out even more!”
La Tasca
Six months on since Spanish tapas chain La Tasca became a standalone business with Simon Wilkinson at the helm as chief executive, business is reported as being generally good. This is despite strategical shifts and a new direction for the business right across the chain of 67 restaurants in the UK. The removal of all discounts, which had represented 25% of sales for La Tasca this time last year, had affected sales, but only marginally. “Our sales are slightly down, but profit is a couple of percent up,” said Wilkinson, adding that getting rid of the company’s old policy of heavy discounting made “total sense” going forward. “Like-for-likes are better than same period for last year and there is a general improvement in trading over the last six months. We’re a more sound, better run business today.”
Feng Sushi
Last week saw London’s fresh fish market, Billingsgate, become home to the Japanese restaurant chain’s seventh outlet. It was the group’s first opening since former Pizza Express chairman Luke Johnson acquired a 92.5% stake in the business a year ago. Co-founder, and only other stakeholder in Feng Sushi, Silla Bjerrum, said the new site in London’s Billingsgate had started well with plans to start advertising and driving sales underway this week. “We took 27 orders a day last week, which for a new site with no advertising or promotion isn’t bad. Our plan is 100 orders a day, which should be easily achievable,” said Bjerrum, adding that the site expected to greatly benefit from its take-away and desk delivery service to office workers in Canary Wharf. Elsewhere in the business, Bjerrum reported a normal, but good week – business was up an average of 10% on like-for-likes. “Our new website, online delivery service increased, brand awareness activity and general investment in the sites are all seeing results. The support of Luke in the business is shining through,” said Bjerrum.
Ever So Sensible Group
Generally a good week for this East Midlands pub, restaurant and city-centre bar operator. While high street drinks business was flat against last year, despite a better week the previous week that was 3-4% up on previous year, elsewhere in the business there was growth. Managing director Chris Bulatis partly attributed last week’s flat trading to students still returning and freshers week keeping new students “in halls or under escort”. It could also down to what’s on television, he added, saying that he expected this sector to improve in the first week of October. Food sales were up 5% in the bistro/restaurant side of the business, fuelled by good value offering and good service. “Our lunchtime offers are good, we have a fixed priced, premium deal, two courses for £8.90, three courses for £10.90,” said Bulatis. Growth was also being seen in the group’s “real pub” sites. “Our Leicester site, which opened last year and is only just going into like-for-like period, was up 35% on previous two to three weeks.”
Loungers
Trade continues to hold up well for Loungers, with 19 sites. Last week saw sales up 2.8%, despite it being the company’s quietest time of year. “The early part of September is a bit of hangover of school holidays and historically it’s a quiet time of year, although our like-for-likes are up, albeit only 3%,” said managing director Alex Reilley. The early part of last week had begun quietly, but concluded with Saturday being the busiest day Loungers has “ever had”. “Some of that will be down to the fact we’ve got 19 units now, compared to 14 this time last year. Saturday was very good, but followed by a sub-standard Sunday. It was strong early in the day but quiet later, which could have been down to the Rugby World Cup showing early in the morning, and people simply running out of puff by the time evening hit.” Loungers’ Plymouth site was up substantially – 23% like-for-like – which was due to the America’s Cup yacht racing taking place. Reilley added he expected a further boost to trade to come in October, when he expected the business to return to the “full style winter trading”. However, he added: “I expect small growth, not the aggressive like-for-like increases of old which have been compromised by the economy attempting to recover.”
Probably a Pub Company
The Midlands-based operator saw September buck its usual trend, trading better than is historically expected in the first month post summer holidays. “Families aren’t our core market, but we usually experience a 20% decline in business once children return to school,” said the company’s owner Mike Staniforth, who has been forced to delay the launch of his new iPad-based customer loyalty scheme due to back problems. “This year, we’ve seen a smaller decline, only 10%, when compared with the previous four to five weeks’ trading.” Weekends were holding up particularly well, and the recently improved and extended Carnarvon in Teveral continued to trade exceptionally well, with weekly takings increase from £30,000 to £35,000 in the week prior to last, a 16% increase on like-for-like on last year.
Pho
The opening of Pho’s latest site in Europe’s largest urban shopping centre, Westfield Stratford City, on Tuesday resulted in a fantastic week for the Vietnamese restaurant chain. “Stratford obliterated its first week’s forecast, taking 50% over budget,” said co-founder Stephen Wall. It was a positive week for Pho across the board, with a good week reported for Brighton, White City and Oxford Circus, which traded 12% positive on like-for-likes, while Soho had its best ever week, 20% up on year-on-year. Wall added he was looking forward to the next few weeks to monitor the new site in Stratford. “We could all do with a few normal weeks’ trading. We had some great weeks this summer and some mediocre weeks and now I would like see things settling before we move into the pre-Christmas rush.”
Grand Union Group
Grand Union’s trade over the last week has been buoyant, recording a 2.6% increase in turnover. Managing director Adam Marshall said he was cautiously optimistic about the business landscape going forward into autumn as “bookings come flooding in, customers get back from their holidays and London returns to normal after a turbulent summer to say the least!”.
Jamie’s Italian
Student life returning to normal resulted in a good weekend for Jamie’s Italian, the 17-strong restaurant group. September didn’t begin well, but things started to pick up last week, concluding in a good weekend. “There is always a 10-day lull in September as students get back from holidays,” explained managing director Simon Blagden. While business was generally flat, London, Oxford, Bath and Cambridge were “all good”. “We expect things to be like this, it’s not easy and we don’t expect much growth this side of Christmas due to the economy. London continues to perform better. We will sit tight,” said Blagden, adding: “We are predicting the half-term holidays to be really significant. When things are tough, people look for reasons to go out and spend their money. Half term, bank holidays, are all reasons to celebrate.”
All Our Bars
September is producing fluctuating trading results for All Our Bars, operator of 17 pubs in the south east. Week one (ending 3 September) was “very good”, ending 5-6% ahead of like-for-likes, but was followed by the company’s worse week, while week three (last week) bounced back and ended 1.4% up against like-for-likes, and 3.3% against budget. “We were busy all week. It was a good week for sport although the rugby hasn’t done much for us so far, but it may pick up in the later rounds, and will probably be different by the quarter finals,” said company founder Paul Wigham, concluding that while such fluctuations in trading results weren’t good, the fact that the company was ahead of like-for-likes overall, wasn’t all bad either.
