The UK’s leading pub and restaurant operators reported a modest bounce-back in trading during March with like-for-like sales up 1.9%, after two months of negative figures, aided by the good weather in March. It compares to a 3.7% like-for-like decline in February and a 2.1% fall in January. Total sales in March, taking into account new openings, were up 6.3% on the previous year, against a rise of just 0.6% in February. Month-on-month, March sales were up 31.3% on February, reflecting the effect of comparing five weeks of trading in March against four in February. The figures come from the Coffer Peach Business Tracker, which surveys 24 major companies in the eating and drinking out sector. The report said that the good weather would have helped trading, particularly in the pub market, which performed more strongly than high street restaurants during the month. It said: “March’s figures essentially put the sector back on an even keel. The informal eating and drinking-out market has remained fairly stable over the past two years in terms of like-for-like growth, and we continue to predict another essentially flat trading year. “However, these multiple chains have continued to increase total sales over the past year, as they expand their estates through new openings and gain market share, largely at the expense of independents.” Richard Hathaway, KPMG’s head of travel, leisure & tourism, said: “The figures for March are encouraging, the warm weather throughout the month obviously inspired people to eat and drink out more which is reflected in the like-for-like sales growth. “We also saw meaningful total sales growth which shows that the sector's stronger brands and operators continue to invest in new sites and are preparing for growth. Although trading remains challenging for the sector as a whole, the positive trends we saw in March may well continue in the months to come, with events like the Jubilee, the European football championships and the summer games likely to provide another boost to the sector.” Jonathan Leinster, head of UBS European Leisure Research, said: “After a strong Christmas period in which most managed operators reported high single digit like-for-like sales, the drop off in sales growth has been marked and sustained. Because consensus estimates for 2012 did not increase following the strong Christmas period we believe that if like-for-like sales growth continues at +1-2% then current consensus estimates for the managed pub companies will be realised. However, were the like-for-like trend to revert to negative then consensus would likely prove optimistic. “We believe consumers are still happy to allocate discretionary spend to eating and drinking out, and pub-restaurants and other low-cost food options are growing share within that market. The March 2012 UBS UK household cash flow indicates that UBS expects average household discretionary expenditure (ex-utilities, fuel and debt payments) to rise 4.6% in 2012. This is well above our like-for-like assumption but note that many of the managed houses are also building new sites.”