The week ending 13 July 2013 was one of the hottest in recent years and, as consumers packed into the nation’s beer gardens, total wet sales rose by 12% against the same week a year ago.
As a by-product of the Wimbledon final on Sunday 7 July, featuring a Brit as well as an unusually sunny week, the market saw big year on year growth on the sales of many drinks categories.
Cider and cocktails
Cider enhanced its position as a beer-garden favourite with sales up +80% against the same week in 2012 ,and cocktails also maintained their position as one of the fastest growing categories in the on-trade with sales up 36% over the same time period. Refreshing taste profiles, over-ice serves and unisex appeal help these two categories outperform other sectors of the market.
Positive wet sales but food can suffer
Using the Trading Index tool from CGA Peach, a weekly barometer of retail sales which tracks brand and category performance within managed pubs, bars and restaurants, CGA’s research highlights positive performance throughout the sunny period which featured the hottest day of the year so far, 13 July.
On the hottest day itself, total wet sales increased by 3%, with Cider (+77%) and Cocktails (+9%) driving more significant uplifts, although food sales declined by –10%.
Performance on this day varied throughout the country with total wet sales showing a greater increase inside the M25 (+12%) than they did throughout the rest of the country (+1%).
“Great weather is obviously great for pubs, and specifically over-ice or summer-friendly drinks, as these numbers show” said Scott Elliott, Director – CGA Peach.
“Without the operational flexibility to tap into summer mind-set and outdoor socialising needs, food sales can suffer. In fact -10% on a day of enhanced footfall is poor. That said, this is good news with average weekly take in growth, with the reversed fortunes of wet and dry sales”.
Trading index data
The report findings are based on Trading Index data from CGA Peach, incorporating product-level, daily sales intelligence for over 5,000 managed pubs, utilised for the first time, in tandem with data from Coffer Peach Tracker.
CGA Strategy is the leading on trade consultancy with over twenty years’ experience of blending best in class quantitative analytics with exceptional market understanding, to create truly actionable insight.