According to numerous reports, trading was strong across pubs and restaurants in the second half of December, after the first two weeks failed to meet expectations (hopes). In particular, pubs with a good food offering benefited from strong bookings over the Christmas and New Year period, aided by mild weather.
Numis reports, therefore, that ‘Overall, we expect to hold forecasts through the Christmas trading statement season, anticipating tough weather comps for pubs offsetting improving consumer prospects in 2015.’
Record sales for Loungers
Loungers, the Piper-backed all-day café/bar group, has reported record sales in the month of December as net sales for the (calendar) month exceeded £5m. The group posted a 47.8% increase in year-on-year sales to £5.12m in a period which saw like-for-like sales increase by 3.5%.
It is understood that the Cosy Club brand performed particularly strongly with the group’s eight Cosy Club sites accounting for just over 30% of group sales in December.
Loungers has also reported that like-for-like sales for last week (w/e 4th January) were up 11.8% with sales on New Year’s Day significantly up by 22.7% like-for-like.
Loungers’ newly appointed managing director, Nick Collins, said, “We once again enjoyed a really excellent festive period with good like-for-like growth and a tremendous increase in revenue. In addition to the Cosy Clubs having a stellar month, many sites set new individual sales records along the way and we saw a really strong performance across the board from the 15 sites we opened in 2014.”
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