Site numbers rise despite sales fall after riots

Other data from real time market intelligence platform Oxford Partnership revealed opening hours were cut by 5.5% as operators felt the need to close earlier and drinkers stayed away.

Prior to this, both London and suburban areas were starting to see volume growth in July with London up 7.4% and suburbia up 4.3%.

There were some green shoots however, with outlet numbers starting to show some signs of growth, albeit small, up 0.1% in the 4 weeks of July and up 0.3% on the previous month.

Moving Annual Total (MAT) figures also showed signs of recovery as the number of openings went from -1.4% to -1.2% in the latest month.

Opening hours decline​

Oxford Partnership said: “What we are seeing is the cost-of-living pressures on business owners as the opening hours decline 4.1% this month.” 

While consumer dwell time was up marginally by 1.4%, it didn’t quite match the encouraging year to date rise of 3.1%. 

Outlet occupancy (how busy a venue is) continued to grow – up 1.1% across the 4 weeks of July but it didn’t get quite to the growth level of 3% in June, which the group cited as partly due to schools breaking up and people travelling abroad for guaranteed sunshine.

Pubs, bars and clubs saw strong year-on-year growth in July of 4.9%, a credible 4.4% up on June’s performance. 

Outstanding uplift​

“This was, no doubt, massively driven by England’s road to the final of Euro 2024, which despite having a disappointing end for home nation fans, still provided an outstanding uplift for the UK on-trade,” Oxford Partnership said.

“Yet again, however, it was a difficult month for restaurants, which declined 18% year-on-year, a further 6.5% decline since June. This is not hugely surprising, in a month where the first half was dominated by sports.”

The business added the ongoing decline in draught beer and cider volumes started to improve, down a tiny 0.2% in the year to date due to the strong turn out during the football.

World lager sales rose by 20.9% and stout was up 12.1% to remain the star performers while core lager saw a real improvement from June up 4.2%, no doubt fuelled by people staying longer to watch the games and drinking more affordable, lower ABV beers.