S4labour has identified that hospitality sales in August 2021 increased by a small 1.6% when compared to August 2019.
Notably, food like-for-likes were up 16% — something we have been used to seeing throughout August in our weekly like-for-like analysis. However, the decline in drink like-for-likes of 12.5% clearly contributed to the small overall increase. Food sales outperforming drink sales occurred within both dry-led and wet-led sites for August.
As for London and non-London sites, the similar pattern continued: non-London experienced significantly more growth than London for month-on-months (August 2021 compared to July 2021). Even though month-on-month hospitality sales rose by 9.5%, London sites saw a decrease of 24.5% whilst non-London’s sales increased by 16.5%.
The Chief Innovation Officer for S4labour, Richard Hartley, commented: “although the increase in like-for-likes is small, given the recent months hospitality has experienced it is reassuring to see August 2021 has bettered August 2019 in regards to overall hospitality sales. The easing of restrictions has certainly helped consumer confidence. These figures offer some sense of reassurance for the hospitality industry, and hopefully this revival continues as we approach the autumn months; especially the London commute making a comeback.”
