Wed 20th Nov 2024 - Sector sales flatten in October as cost pressures mount Sector sales flatten in October as cost pressures mount: Britain’s top managed hospitality groups achieved year-on-year sales growth of 0.6% in October 2024, the latest edition of the CGA RSM Hospitality Business Tracker shows. It marks the fourth month of below-inflation like-for-like growth in a row, and means the tracker is now at its lowest point since April. The flattening of sales reflects fragile consumer confidence amid ongoing cost increases, as well as poor weather for much of October. Weak growth raises concerns for trading over the crucial Christmas period and adds to new pressures on hospitality’s tax burden set out in the government’s recent Budget, it said. October’s figures are mitigated to some extent by Hallowe’en, which usually boosts trading but fell on a Thursday this year. Many celebrations will therefore have taken place over the following weekend, and tracker data from early November shows they have contributed to a bright start to the month for pubs and bars in particular. The tracker shows total sales growth in October – including new venues opened during the last 12 months – was slightly better at 2.4%. Managed pubs achieved like-for-like growth of 1.5%, but it was a challenging month for restaurants, where sales were clipped by 0.1%. Elsewhere, bars saw sales fall 4.2% below the levels of October 2023. On-the-go groups performed best of the major segments with 4.3% growth – possibly the result of some consumers trading down their spending from meals out. For the third month in a row, growth in London lagged the rest of the country. Managed groups’ sales inside the M25 were down by 0.1% year-on-year, while venues further afield achieved 0.9% growth. Karl Chessell, director – hospitality operators and food, EMEA at CGA by NIQ, said: “It’s clearly been a tough autumn, and real-terms growth remains elusive. Conditions haven’t been helped by the Budget. It is going to be a make-or-break Christmas for some operators, and while underlying demand for hospitality remains good, trading conditions are likely to remain very difficult well into 2025.”