The Guinness six nations rugby tournament is providing a welcome boost to the licensed on trade!
In round 2 of the Guinness Six Nations, France returned to winning ways against Scotland but only after the TMO denied Scotland a match winning try.
Saturday’s second match saw England come back from a 5-14 scoreline at half time to prevail with a narrow 16-14 victory against Wales. On Sunday, Ireland continued its strong form, winning by 36 points against Italy, keeping the Azzuri scoreless in the process.
Off the pitch, the good news is that pubs saw a decent uplift in sales of draught beer and cider of 2.3% versus 2023 and 14.2% versus the other weekends in 2024 thus far, with the Scottish fans topping the number of pints consumed, despite their last minute disappointment.
Round 2 gave pubs and bars a reason to cheer as 25.6 million pints were served. In addition to this was an increase in footfall, as the rugby enticed +6.8% more consumers vs. 2023 to visit, driven by strong increases in Sunday trade.
Suburbia and Rural led the way +10.5% and +11% respectively. City Centres also bounced back this week with thankfully no rail strikes and, as a result, footfall grew by +4.1%.
All of this meant that the average pub enjoyed draught sales of 675 pints over the weekend, which was an extra 84 pints, equating to a £3,118 income generator.
England fans celebrated their win with an extra 104 pints consumed per venue, while Scottish fans drowned their sorrows with an uplift of 112 pints per venue. Wales followed with 48 extra pints per venue as their team went down to England.
Overall, the Beer & Cider Category was up +2.3% driven by Ale, Stout and Apple Cider, with Ale the biggest winner.
Interestingly, we can see a shift to lower abv brands with Core Lager & World 4% virtually flat vs. 2023 whereas World Lager & especially Premium Lager lost out, with Premium Lager losing category share and declining -10.8% vs 2023.
Average consumer dwell time grew at a total level to 133 mins vs. 131 mins in the same week last year (+1.3%) with City Centres driving the highest growth +2.3%. Plus all locations benefitted from an increased consumer visit length.
