Turnover for Orchid Group grew +9.8% over the Christmas and New Year period, the company reports, with food sales up 11% across the business, according to Simon Dodd, Commercial & People Director.
“Across the company we had a record breaking Christmas with very strong sales. There was a definite upturn in consumer confidence this year, with Christmas bookings up over 6% on last year.
“For us, it was all about getting in early. Festive planning started in earnest in July with dedicated Manager road-shows, training sessions and sales ambassadors’ workshops. We offered customers early booking incentives and as a result they were up by 10%. To excite managers, we ran a Christmas sales incentive offering the best performing 20 a trip to Miami.”
Pizza Kitchen Bars
The big winner for Orchid this year was its 25 Pizza Kitchen Bars, up by +21% on last year.
Simon says, “PKB is our genre busting concept. It’s informal, friendly and great for all ages so perfect for Christmas celebrations – whether work dos or family parties.”
Carveries flourish
Across the festive period, Orchid’s 47 Carveries saw a +15% increase in festive sales from last year, serving 350,000 diners during December with a staggering 3,600 turkeys consumed.
This comes on the back of a strong year for Orchid carveries which is currently growing by 7% on a like for like basis:
- Covers up over 10% year-on-year
- Total like-for-like sales growth up +7%
- Like-for-like food growth year-to-date +8%
- Over 2.4 million carveries sold in 2013
- Carvery wastage reduced, closing the gap between actual and theoretical margin in 2013 to 0.2%
Elsewhere in the business, Do Drop Inns saw sales growth of +7%, Independent Locals were up by 7.0%, Free House Dining +3% and Dragons +5.5%.
Invested pubs showed their worth too with recently refurbished pubs seeing like for like sales growth of +30.5% in week 52. Overall, Orchid’s invested estate is up by over 38%, showing customers support for what the company has to offer.
And Heston Blumenthal helps…
A visit from celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal helped too – he broadcast his show, ‘Heston’s Great British Food’ from the Young Pretender in Kings Langley just before Christmas.