It's mixed results for pub festive trade

Predictions ahead of Christmas were cautiously optimistic, but the economic climate combined with the adverse weather produced patchy performances for holiday trade.

Christmas has always been a special time for pubs — and a nervy one. Expectations are high that the festive mood will loosen the purse strings and that the boost in takings will carry the business through a quiet January and February.

But you can't quite rely on it, as this Christmas showed. The state of the economy caused many to rein in their celebrations, and the snows that fell from the third week of December threw another factor into the calculations.

Success became unpredictable.

The Morning Advertiser's snapshot survey among more than 100 tenanted and freehold pubs showed 46% were down on Christmas 2008, but that 39% were up — despite the difficulties.

Early reports from pub groups are still somewhat hazy as number-crunchers struggled to get to their spreadsheets through the January snow, but they do tell us a little more about patterns of trade.

Most importantly, people are still going to the pub. Taking adverse circumstances into account, most operators were pleased with their performance.

"It's been a very good Christmas and New Year for Fuller's pubs, with customers in some areas prepared to go to great lengths to enjoy the unique hospitality provided by the great British pub," said Simon Emeny, managing director of Fuller's Inns.

"It looks as if trading has been good," said Batemans managing director Stuart Bateman. "Sales of our Christmas beer Rosey Nosey were 42% ahead of forecast and we didn't have a drop of beer left in the brewery on Christmas Eve."

"Our Christmas trading was better than expected, turnover being about — on average — what it was last year, but with big variations between the outlets," said Tony Brookes, managing director of Head of Steam. "We're very satisfied, all in all."

Early uplift​

There are encouraging reports that the festive uplift started earlier. For as long as most can remember, Christmas has been getting later, but this time, for Orchid Group, "it kicked in the second week of December", and for Slug & Lettuce operator Bay Restaurant Group "the start of December was so good we thought we were heading for a record," said CEO Paul Symonds.

Then the snows came, and pubs found themselves in something of a postcode lottery. If anything, snow makes a cosy convivial pub more inviting and community houses were busy.

But people tended to stay close to home, and rural and destination pubs suffered.

Significantly, among the best figures revealed so far are those from Geronimo Inns, which has 28 sites in London, mostly in neighbourhoods. Including seven newly opened pubs, sales were 44% up for the four weeks from 7 December.

Three quarters of the neighbourhood pubs returned a record in the snowy week.

Hydes' managed estate in Manchester was 4% ahead. "Snow affected town-centre sites, but not our suburban community locals, which did really well," said marketing director David Safiruddin.

"People gravitated towards them rather than take the risk of going to a destination venue."

Community pubs​

Burnley's Moorhouse's Brewery saw seasonal sales up 12%, with its own six community and town-centre pubs making a valuable contribution. Managing director David Grant put it down to them being strong, well-run, community houses.

"It looks as though local community pubs may have performed better than the high street due to people staying local and enjoying the traditional pub atmosphere," he said.

Charles Wells pubs saw a similar pattern, reported a spokeswoman. "Many of our licensees saw buoyant sales over Christmas and New Year and as always, those who put in the preparation benefited most.

"One trend we did notice during the bad weather was that community pubs traded particularly well. Locals who couldn't make it into work seemed to be able to make it round the corner to the pub!

"Conversely, destination venues, particularly pubs with a strong food offering, suffered as people decided not to make the journey and cancelled bookings — sometimes for a large group."

December trading was 11% up for Peach Pub Company, but it could have been even better for the group's 13 destination dining venues.

"The snow hit six of our pubs hard and we reckon we lost about £100,000 of sales due to loss of Christmas bookings," said co-founder Hamish Stoddart.

"Without the snow we could have been up 17%."

"Trading leading towards Christmas was very encouraging — despite pressures on consumer leisure expenditure," said a spokeswoman for Punch Taverns' managed arm.

"The snow and icy conditions from 18 December hit a number of pubs, particularly destination venues. After the difficult weather, trade picked up strongly."

Weekend trade​

One positive feature of the 2009 season for everyone was the way Christmas and New Year fell just before the weekend. Dragon Inns, which runs seven community pubs in the Welsh Valleys, traded solidly right across the period, according to operations director Graham Wall.

"Business was good right the way through. We didn't really have any quiet days from the Friday before Christmas. People were out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, then it was Christmas Eve. And we also had the bank holiday after the weekend.

"New Year was a similar story with strong trading on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

"Our food offer went well. People went to the pubs rather than the more expensive hotels, and £15 to £20 for the full Christmas meal was an attractive price — it left them more to spend on drink."

Right offer​

Getting the offer right, and planning well in advance, proved their worth. Trading at St Austell Brewery pubs was "mixed", reported a spokesman, as Cornwall saw visitor numbers slip in the cold weather.

"One bright spot was Christmas Day itself, which saw a sales growth of 13%," he said.

"That was helped by marketing activity through the autumn to encourage people to have their family meal in a St Austell pub."

Christmas Day was a big one for Orchid, too. "Local pubs did a cracking trade," said commercial director Simon Dodd, who reported a "better than expected" festive season.

"Food-led businesses flew, and locals were solid. The weather was tricky, but didn't affect us as much as we thought it might.

"New Year's Eve was very strong, 8% up like-for-like, and the bank holiday Monday was bumper, it really helped us out.

"We were good at bookings, too. All the info went out early, in July, and that reaped real dividends. We were 8% up in our carveries."

"Really pushing bookings" helped Bay Restaurant Group, too. "People had to make a definite decision to visit," said chief executive Paul Symonds. "It was a fantastic effort from our staff.

"The only thing was that, because of the weather, if we had a table for 10 booked, only eight would show. We had one case where someone phoned from the office to say they were the only one there. So we've rebooked some parties for January."

Bookings up​

Toby Smith, chief executive of Town & City Pub Company, was "delighted" with December's performance, which saw the group 8% up on 2008.

"The value end of the market seems to be going from strength to strength," he said. "Lots of people were on the high-street shopping and we picked up trade on the back of that. The desire to go to the pub is as strong as ever."

Party bookings, 60% up, were a big part of the success, but the recession did have one negative effect — groups were smaller as companies cut back on spending and left it to individual departments to organise their own celebrations.

It brought an ingenious solution from some Town & City pubs, such as Yates's in Harlow, Essex, which brought 20 or 30 smaller groups together for one big party night.

"They all mixed together and it made for a party atmosphere that might otherwise have been lost," said Smith.

And when you think of it, that's something only a pub can do