by Abby Henson | Aug 26, 2025 | Sales Figures
The latest data from S4labour reveals hospitality sales across the UK rose by 2.2% in July 2025 compared to the same period last year, with London significantly outperforming the rest of the country. The capital saw a 9.8% increase in like-for-like sales, while non-London regions experienced a slight decline of 0.2%.
Food-led venues in London were up 9.5%, compared to just 0.5% growth outside the capital. Wet-led sites also saw a strong uplift in London, rising 10.2%, while non-London wet-led venues fell by 2.1%.
Richard Hartley, Chief Growth Officer at S4labour, commented: “London’s hospitality boom this July could be due to a number of factors, including above average temperatures and return to office culture, with operators well-positioned to capitalise on increased demand. Inflationary pressures continue to pose challenges for all operators across the country, likely dampening performance outside of London in particular.”
by Abby Henson | Aug 6, 2025 | Blogs
Spending big on your labour, but not seeing your sales increase?
Your labour budget is decided, and you aren’t cutting corners when it comes to spending it; you’re ensuring every shift is fully staffed and your team are working the hours – so why aren’t you taking more money?
Understandably, you may be quite frustrated with the amount of time and productivity you are getting out of your current rotas. You may even find that a lot of your team are in at points in the business where they just aren’t needed for the amount of guests.
You’ve likely had upwards of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of cost pressures since April, and the easiest thing to do would be to say: “this amount of labour is not essential” and cut, cut, cut. But as a business, you cannot afford to compromise on how service feels on the floor and to your guests.
So, you’ve got to strike the right balance. The good news is, you don’t need to spend even more on your labour to make more money – what you need is control over where you are spending it, and an understanding of why.
How often have you walked into a venue and the service doesn’t match what they are trying to achieve? Hours shouldn’t have to be cut to fix this, but what needs to happen is a deep dive into the business to see when is most productive and when is not. It’s all about highlighting the finer aspects of rota-writing and how you plan your week.
S4labour’s tools are built to give you that control, so you have a confident platform to start growing sales from. Take a look at how we helped Grosvenor start expanding out on bigger sales.
“With some incremental changes to each business, it meant that, as a whole, Grosvenor became more productive, more efficient and certainly on site it gave a lot of control and knowledge to the fingertips of our general managers.”
Sam King, Business Director at Grosvenor Pubs and Inns.
Anybody would be a bit apprehensive about bringing in a new system, but S4labour will help your team, from head chefs to general managers, to start looking at the business in a sales-driven way, rather than a cost cutting way.
“So we put S4 in and you can actually see with the percentage of sales turnover that everything we made in that year was attributed to that control.”
Sam Hagger, Founder and Managing Director at The Beautiful Pubs Collective.
Join the operators already growing sales with S4labour. Book a demo to see what’s possible.
by Abby Henson | Jul 22, 2025 | Blogs
Only 33% of Hospitality Operators Have a Workforce Management System That Works
A recent industry survey from S4labour reveals that only 1 in 3 operators report having a workforce management system that truly works for their business, while 24% respondents selected that they do not know what a workforce management system is at all.
The same survey also found that 67% of operators reported that their staff always upsell or suggest additional items to guests, while 1 in 3 operators do not set shift incentives or targets for their teams.
Furthermore, 77% of operators agree that the biggest driver for increasing sales is improving habits through training.
Mark Jensen, Chief Commercial Officer at S4labour, commented: “Operators know that better habits lead to better performance. Without a reliable system in place, those habits are hard to track and reinforce, so this data presents a major opportunity for tech providers and operators.”
by Abby Henson | Jul 11, 2025 | Sales Figures
In June, overall sales were down 2.6% compared to the same period last year, the latest data from S4labour has revealed.
There was a significant 8.7% drop in sales for wet-led sites, while food-led venues edged up by 0.2% year-on-year.
London saw a 6% increase overall, however venues outside of the capital reported a 5.3% decline.
Mark Jensen, Chief Commercial Officer at S4labour, commented: “Despite record-breaking warmth in June, sales in drink-led venues were down significantly, pointing to deeper behavioural and economic shifts. For July and August, operators will be watching to see if this trend continues or rebounds, while still navigating significant cost pressures.”
by Abby Henson | May 8, 2025 | Sales Figures
Hospitality sales were up 5.1% in April compared to the same month last year, data from S4labour has revealed.
The overall increase was driven by sales outside of the capital, with non-London seeing an uptick of 7.2%. Meanwhile, London saw a decline of 1.2% year-on-year.
Dry sites fared slightly better than wet-led sites, with an increase of 6.1% and 3%, respectively.
“April’s growth is good news for operators as we transition into the new financial year, with new wage rates taking effect. This shift is partly due to the sunny weather and the fact that Easter fell in April this year, unlike last year when it was in March.”
