Restaurants’ at-home sales flatten in December as consumers go out to celebrate: Year-on-year growth in delivery and takeaway sales at Britain’s leading restaurant groups slowed to 1.9% in December 2024, CGA by NIQ’s latest Hospitality at Home Tracker shows. While at-home sales have now risen for 19 months in a row, the latest number is well short of November’s growth of 6.2% and marks the tracker’s lowest point since March last year. For the first time in 2024, it fell slightly below the UK’s general monthly rate of inflation of 2.4%, as measured by the consumer prices index. The tracker said December’s figure may reflect consumers’ shift towards going out rather than ordering in over Christmas. It went on to say that they were further encouraged out of the home by generally mild weather and the timing of festive holidays, which gave many consumers longer periods of time off work. A breakdown of the tracker indicates 2.2% like-for-like growth in delivery sales, while takeaway and click-and-collect revenue was flatter at 1.4%. Total delivery and takeaway sales, including from sites opened in the last 12 months, rose by 10.3%. Karl Chessell, CGA by NIQ’s director of hospitality operators and food EMEA, said: “After 11 months of real-terms growth for deliveries and takeaways, December’s slip below inflation was a disappointing end to 2024 for restaurant groups. But the flipside of the coin is that many consumers were confident enough to head out to celebrate rather than stay in. As more of their economic pressures ease, we can be cautiously optimistic about growth in both channels in 2025, but the mounting burden of costs for hospitality groups will put pressure on margins for some time to come.” Earlier this week, the new Hospitality Market Monitor from CGA by NIQ and AlixPartners showed that Britain’s pubs, restaurants and hotels overcame widespread challenges to end 2024 with virtually the same number of premises as 12 months earlier.