According to analysis from S4labour, last week’s hospitality sales were down 1.2% on the previous week. However, the decline was driven from weak performance in London, where week on week sales slipped 9.1%. Sites outside the capital grow sales by nearly 1% on the previous week.
The number of sites that were open also declined last week. For the first two weeks since the rules were relaxed to allow outside trading, circa 55% of sites were open, however, that figure slipped to 48% last week.
63% of sites traded at greater or equal to their sales level, compared to the same week in 2019, with two thirds of sites trading at 80% or above 2019 levels.
Chief Customer Officer, Sam Wignell commented that “We would anticipate some dampening on trading in London as people leave the city over a Bank Holiday weekend, but the severity of sales decline indicates just how vulnerable the industry is to adverse weather at the moment.” “We have always known that re-opening with reduced capacity would make trade unfeasible for many. We are starting to see that, for those with limited space, re-closing is the only option for now”.
