Pre-tournament favourites, France and Ireland, kicked off the 2024 Guinness Six Nations in some style – with Ireland claiming a historic win. In other games, England achieved the narrowest of wins against Italy. And Scotland, having romped to a 27 point lead, survived an incredible 26 point second half Welsh comeback by a solitary point.
Off the pitch, draught beer and cider sales were -7.3% over the Friday to Sunday vs. 2023, although this comparison isn’t strictly fair as we see games on Friday & Saturday in 2024 vs. Saturday & Sunday in 2023.
The positive news is that the weekend drove +6.6% increase in sales vs. the other weekends in 2024 so far.
Turning to category performance, the big winners over the weekend were the more traditional winter drinks (Stout & Ale). Stout is the biggest winner and is driving category growth +7.5%.
2024 also sees the Premiumisation trend continuing unabated with World Lager overtaking Core Lage as the bigger category. The biggest categories to lose out are Premium Lager -15.1% and Core Lager -13.8%.
Average consumer dwell time grew at a total level to 134 mins vs. 131 mins in the same week last year (+2.3%) with City Centres driving the highest growth +2.3%.
With all locations benefitting from an increased consumer visit length vs. 2023, with Suburbia outlets +1.5% whilst Rural saw a marginal increase +0.8%.
Meanwhile, footfall is declining in line with volume -3.3% vs. 2023 driven by a strong decline on Saturday. Suburbia was worst affected with poor weather & the cost of living keeping consumers at home.
City Centres were also badly affected by the ongoing rail strikes. Sunday continues to see increases across the board as we see consumers looking to go out, particularly for food as there’s no rugby to enjoy.
