The tracker shows average sales in managed venues in the week to last Saturday (12 October) were 5% down on the same period last year.
October 2023 benefited from warm weather across most of the country and the closing stages of the Rugby World Cup – both of which brought consumers out to pubs and bars in large numbers.
The latest numbers continue a difficult run of negative numbers in nine of the past 12 weeks.
Brighter patches
Sales were behind on five of the seven days of the week, falling between 6% and 16% from Sunday to Tuesday (6-8 October).
However, there were brighter patches of trading – sales were positive on Wednesday and 3% ahead year-on-year on Friday, before falling back 8% on Saturday (12 October).
The Daily Drinks Tracker’s category breakdown shows sales fell year-on-year across the board. Wine (down 1%) and beer (down 3%) fared better than cider (down 9%), soft drinks (down 6%) and spirits (down 14%).
CGA by NIQ’s commercial leader UK & Ireland Rachel Weller said: “Sunshine and high temperatures at the start of last autumn are inevitably making sales growth very difficult this October.
Not seeing higher spend
“The atypical weather means we shouldn’t read too much into year-on-year comparisons but another week of negative drinks sales growth is nevertheless disappointing.
“Falling inflation and other encouraging economic indicators should be helping to improve consumers’ confidence, but we’re not yet seeing that translate into higher spending on drinking out.”
The Daily Drinks Tracker provides analysis of sales at managed licensed premises across Britain and is part of CGA by NIQ’s suite of research services delivering in-depth data on category, supplier and brand rate of sale performance.
