Sunshine brings welcome boost to trade

Record trading has been reported in the first weeks of May as glorious sunshine draws customers to pubs across the UK.

Takings were up by as much as 80 per cent on the same period last year as temperatures soared to a high of 27.5C - making it the hottest May for more than 200 years.

The good weather was welcomed by publicans who were affected by last year's notoriously bad summer.

Matt Quick of the Rose & Crown, in Blackfriars, London, said: "It has been manic. On Friday I ran out of beer. We had 250 people in the garden and they stayed all day.

"Last summer I was down £2,000 a week but the sunshine means my takings double."

Claire McCutcheon, licensee of The Harrow in Steep, Hampshire, said: "The weather has been absolutely awful up to now and obviously this is the summer we've been waiting for."

Pubco giant Punch Taverns also reported increased sales. Andrew Knight, managing director of managed division Spirit Group, said: "The industry has faced a challenging start to the year and it's really encouraging that so many customers have flocked to their local over the last week or so.

"It's good to see that all of the money that the industry invested in developing external eating and drinking areas last year has paid off."

Tristram Hillier of Corney & Barrow Wine Bars added: "It's stunning for us. Come the sunshine, everybody decides to head out to drink Pimms and champagne. If this carries on it will deliver a record year."

The Met Office has forecast an end to the heatwave later this week, but predicted temperatures would stay above average for the rest of the summer.