In July, hospitality sales saw an overall year-on-year increase of 1.4%, the latest S4labour data reports.
Food sales were responsible for this slight growth, with an increase of 5.8%, whereas drink sales were down 2.0% compared to last year.
London fared much better than the rest of the country, seeing sales 2.9% ahead of 2022, whilst non-London experienced a decline of 4.3%.
Richard Hartley, Chief Growth Officer at S4labour, commented: “July has been a much slower month than we would have liked, as sales have likely suffered due to bad weather, with less people going out for drinks throughout the month. Though these numbers indicate growth, they still lag behind inflation levels. However, as we move into August, we are hopeful that the summer holidays, as well as the bank holiday, will help towards offsetting this.”