Britain’s managed pub groups saw collective sales growth of 2.9%, with like-for-likes rising by 0.2% against August last year, according to the latest figures from the Coffer Peach Business Tracker.

“The early summer heatwave was great news for Britain’s pubs as the public headed outdoors,” said Karl Chessell, director at CGA, the business insight consultancy that produces the Tracker, in partnership with Coffer Group and RSM.

Paul Newman, head of leisure and hospitality at RSM, said, “Fierce competition, escalating input costs and flat like-for-like sales have contributed to the recently reported 2.5% year on year fall in the number of licensed premises in the UK.

“Post inflation wage growth is helping to underpin consumer demand for eating and drinking out. With fewer sites now vying for this increase in discretionary spend, operators will be looking to capitalise. Whilst it is still a tough marketplace, these figures show there is still a lot of opportunity.”

Total sales growth across the pub and restaurant cohort, which includes the effect of new openings, was 3.2% in August, reflecting a slowdown but not a halt in brand roll-outs, and was running at 3.7% for the 12 months to the end of the month.

The Coffer Peach Tracker industry sales monitor for the UK pub, bar and restaurant sector collects and analyses performance data from 47 operating groups, with a combined turnover of over £9bn, and is the established industry benchmark.

(source: CGA, image: pexels)