As is often the case with good weather, while pubs did well restaurants struggled for trade. The latest CGA by NIQ Hospitality Business Tracker reveals that restaurant groups saw like-for-likes down a hefty 5.7% on March last year.

Overall, collective like-for-like sales for multi-site groups across all eating-out and drinking-out channels were down by 0.6% against the same month in 2024.

“Although, sales benefitted from St Patrick’s Day and Mothers’ Day, figures for this March didn’t include Easter trading as they did in 2024, so overall probably not a bad outcome,” commented Peach 20/20 co-founder Peter Martin. “Looking at the underlying trend, multi-site businesses have seen collective like-for-like revenue growth of 1.8% over the past 12 months compared to the previous 12 month period. It shows people are still spending when going out, even if much of that is on higher prices.”

Tracker figures for March also show:

• Like restaurants, bar groups saw a drop in trade in March, down 9.2% on the same month last year;
• The on-the-go market saw flat same-store trading up a marginal 0.1%, although total sales were ahead 24.9% on March 2024 showing the major growth in outlet numbers over the past year;
• London out-performed the rest of the country, with like-for-likes up 1.1%, while outside the M25 they were down 1.1% - London pubs were up a big 7.9%. 

The Tracker collects sales data directly from 115 managed groups across the out-of-home sector.