The latest Daily Drinks Tracker from CGA by NIQ, which measures average sales by value, revealed trade in the seven days to Saturday 20 January was 8% behind the same period in 2023.
Attributed to cold weather adding to the challenges of consumers’ slow post-Christmas spending, the figures followed a 7% drop in sales across the previous seven days.
Tough week
Drinks sales were down year-on-year on each of the seven days of the week, with Monday (down 2%) and Tuesday (down 4%) the two best performers.
A cold snap and travel disruption in some parts of the country then made for a “challenging weekend”, CGA explained, with trade then falling by 9% on the Friday and 10% on the Saturday.
Category wise, all of those measured by the tracker saw a “tough week”, with beer (down 5%), wine (down 4%) and soft drinks (down 8%) all in the red.
Double whammy
The cider category (down 1%) proved the most resilient while spirits continued to struggle against last year’s levels, with sales 19% below the same week in 2023.
CGA managing director UK and Ireland Jonathan Jones said: “The double whammy of consumers saving money after Christmas, dry January and bad weather is making this a hard month for pubs and bars.
“Storms Isha and Jocelyn will have given them another difficult week, and operators and suppliers will be crossing fingers for more settled weather soon.
“There are some positive signs that consumers’ spending confidence will improve as 2024 goes on, but sustained real-terms sales growth feels some way off at the moment.”
