Food sales in British pubs are now almost twice the size of licensed restaurants – totalling £7.5 billion in the last 12 months – and are the biggest single channel in the licensed trade for food.
According to a new report from CGA Strategy, pub food value sales are up +4.2% in the past year compared to a year ago, with that growth set to continue through to 2017.
80%+ spent on main courses
Main courses are the main event: worth £6.2 billion a year, with only one in four diners going on to order a dessert, and just one in five opting for a starter.
Predictably, the nation’s favourite meal is the humble roast dinner, worth £876 million (12% of total main meal value), with steak and burgers also in the top 5.
And, with the popularity of roast dinners in mind, it’s not surprising that Sunday is the key trading session for food-led pubs, with 22% of food sales happening on the last day of the week.
CGA Strategy’s Scott Elliott commented:
“Our work charts the epic rise of food in pubs from pork scratchings and pickled eggs to the dynamic, diverse and quality-driven landscape evident today. Despite the recession, which has put significant pressure on the licensed trade and caused closure rates in wet-led pubs and sports & social clubs to spike, food-led outlets remain remarkably resilient. It seems that the nation increasingly sees the pub as a first choice for eating out”.
CGA Pub Food Report 2012
The CGA Pub Food Report, released on 8 November, has been developed by food and drink consultancy firm CGA Strategy as a precursor to the launch of a new suite of food insight services. The report findings are based on a combination of data sources, including daily sales data for over 5,000 managed pubs, over 8 years of menu analysis from a biannual sample of over 1,000 pubs and restaurants, and market value estimations driven by on trade data, all analysed through class-leading on trade expertise.
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