Christmas Boosts Engagement for UK Hospitality, but Margins Remain Under Pressure

Christmas trading delivered the strongest engagement of the year for the UK On Trade in December, with venues busier, visits longer and spend per head at its highest point of 2025. However, despite the festive uplift, rising costs continued to cap real value and margin recovery, according to new data from The Oxford Partnership.

The number of operating venues rose to 100,018, lifting the number back above the 100,000 mark as temporary and marginal sites returned for the festive period. Consumers stayed out longer than at any other point this year, with average dwell reaching 150 minutes, while occupancy increased to 63.9 percent, reflecting genuinely fuller venues rather than simply extended visits.

December once again shows why Christmas is the most important trading moment of the year for hospitality, said Alison Jordan, CEO of The Oxford Partnership. Venues saw more people, staying longer, and engaging more deeply with the experience. But higher engagement alone is not enough to fix profitability.

Average spend per head climbed to £26.53, the highest level recorded in 2025, driven primarily by food-led festive occasions, group bookings and set menus. However, spend intensity remained constrained, as higher headline spend was spread across longer visits.

Consumers were happy to spend time and money on social occasions, Jordan added. “What we didn’t see was a step-change in rate of sale. People spent more overall, but not faster, which limits the margin upside for operators.”

Operators kept average weekly opening hours steady at 64.5 hours, prioritising availability across lunch, evening and late-night occasions to capture festive demand. While this supported stronger utilisation, cost pressures remained acute. Elevated energy prices, wage inflation, higher National Insurance contributions and ongoing food and drink input costs continued to weigh on profitability, with additional festive staffing and utility usage further diluting gains.

Christmas helped stabilise performance, but it didn’t reset margins. The structural cost challenges facing operators are still very much in place.

From a category perspective, year-to-date performance continues to be driven by premiumisation. Stout stands out, up 9.1 percent year to date, benefiting from strong winter relevance and growing mainstream appeal. Premium and World Lager remain in growth, while Craft and Ale continue to face pressure as consumers narrow repertoires and prioritise trusted choices.

Analysis of the Top 25 highest-selling draught beer and cider days of 2025 underlines Christmas’s dominance. Christmas Eve was the single biggest trading day of the year, delivering approximately 2.75 million pints across around 10,000 outlets, with multiple festive days clustering at the top of the rankings.

Christmas doesn’t just outperform other occasions, it anchors the year, Jordan concluded. “In a challenging trading environment, festive performance remains structurally essential to annual outcomes for the UK On Trade.”