The tracker showed average sales in managed venues were up by 18% during the seven days to Saturday 8 April compared with the same week in 2022.
However, comparisons were skewed by the early Easter in this year’s calendar, and figures are likely to even out over the next few weeks, CGA added.
CGA managing director UK and Ireland Johnathan Jones said: “These figures indicate some solid trading over the first half of the Easter holidays, but with the very important caveat that comparisons are affected by the way key dates fall.
Real-terms growth far off
“Damp weather will have made trading conditions tougher during certain parts of the week, and consistent, real-terms sales growth is still some way off.”
Marking a strong start to the long weekend, trade saw growth of 52% and 28% on Thursday and Good Friday (6 and 7 April) respectively.
The start of school holidays and bright weather earlier in the week also propelled sales, with growth of 34% and 30% on Monday and Tuesday (3 and 4 April).
However, sales dipped 3% year-on-year on Saturday (8 April), as some consumers spread out their occasions over the long weekend.
Topsy-turvy conditions
Comparatively, data from the previous CGA tracker showed sales in the seven days to Saturday 25 March were 3% down.
Category wise cider, beer, wine and soft drinks all saw growth, up 39%, 21%, 19% and 24% respectively while spirits sales saw the smallest uplift at 2%.
This comes as data from Oxford Partnership last week revealed draught beer and cider sales in the on-trade throughout the Easter weekend surpassed 2022 figures, with 64.2m pints consumed over the first bank holiday of the year.
Jones added: “April and May are big months of the year for the on premise, and operators and suppliers will hope for the topsy-turvy conditions to settle into warm weather to bring people out to drink.”
