Drinks sales continued to lag pre-pandemic trading last week, ahead of a much-needed lift to pubs, bars and restaurants from the easing of Covid restrictions.
CGA’s Drinks Recovery Tracker shows average drinks sales by value in Britain’s managed pubs, bars, and restaurants in the week to Saturday, 22nd January, were 11% below the same week in 2020.
It extends a tough period for the licensed sector, after shortfalls of 18% and 12% in the first two weeks of 2022 — though these were an improvement on a 25% drop in the last three weeks of 2021.
There is cautious confidence that drinks sales may pick up after Plan B restrictions were eased in England on Thursday.
CGA’s breakdown of drinks categories shows spirits sales were exactly flat compared to the same week in 2020. However, beer and cider (down 13%), wine (down 18%) and soft drinks (down 12%) were all well behind.
“It’s been a very challenging start to 2022 in the hospitality sector, further weakening drinking-out businesses that suffered a collapse in sales over Christmas,” said Jonathan Jones, CGA’s managing director, UK and Ireland.
“We can be optimistic that the end to Plan B restrictions will encourage consumers to get back to pubs, bars, and restaurants over the next few weeks, and kickstart what will hopefully be a much brighter year.
“However, rising costs in many areas have hit both profit margins and consumer spending, and operators and suppliers are going to have to work hard to generate sales in 2022.”
