Like for like sales figures jump 4.4% for hospitality providers in February.
According to analysis of more than 1,500 sites using S4labour software, overall like for like sales were up 4.4% in February 2020, compared with the same month in 2019.
In February 2020, it was the sales of drinks that bolstered the strongest like for like growth, up 6.1% on February 2019, which contrasted with the 1.3% increase in sales of food. This however should be put into context, where 2019 saw reasonably strong growth in sales of food and very modest increase in drinks of sales.
Like last month, it was sites outside of London that saw the strongest sales growth, with a 4.5% uplift of sales outside the capital and a 3.3% rise in London.
Sam Wignell, S4labour Chief Customer Officer noted that the figures show a continuing trend in 2020 which suggests that there is something of a revival of wet-led pubs outside London and really strong performance from restaurants in the capital. In fact, there was an 8.1% jump in like for like sales for food orientated business inside the capital and an 8.5% boost in like for like sales for drink focused business outside London. Both of which are year on year growth, something that will be highly encouraging to operators. It will be very interesting to see how this trend pans out throughout the rest of 2020.
