The UK on trade benefitted from a strong St Patrick’s weekend of sales helped along by the final matches of the Guinness Six Nations tournament.
The celebrations for the St Patrick’s Day weekend started on Friday and continued through to the day itself on Sunday the 17th with sales across the 3 days up +3.3% versus the same weekend in 2023. In addition to this, the weekend was +11% up versus every other weekend in 2024 thus far, which was a real result for the hospitality industry that has struggled to see any real momentum as yet this year.
The weekend drove a total of 27m pints of draught beer and cider with c.4.5m pints of stout consumed across the 3 days. Overall, the trade saw strong growth in Ale, Cider, Stout and World Lager as consumers celebrated the ‘craic’ with friends and family.
The average pub served 1,077 pints of Draught Beer & Cider over the course of the weekend, equating to a £3,301 income generator. This was an extra +106 pints sold per pub versus an average weekend this year.
Last year, St Patrick’s Day fell on the Friday and became one of the biggest sales days of the year – this year we saw Saturday driving the highest sales as many outlets capitalised on both the Super Saturday of the Six Nations finale along with many St Patrick’s Day events.
England had the thirstiest fans drinking an extra 126 pints, with Scotland a steady second drinking an extra 96 pints but Wales fans had clearly given up on the tournament and drank 72 pints less than average.
Overall footfall to pubs grew in line with volume with the weekend +2.9% vs. 2023 driven by strong increases on Saturday & Sunday. Saturday saw growth in City Centres and Suburbia as groups gathered for St Patrick’s Day and the Rugby, whilst Sunday was all about Rural & Suburban areas.
People stayed even longer with the average consumer dwell time growing at a total level to 135 mins vs. 131 mins in the same week last year (+3.1%). City Centres and Suburbia benefitted the most, as all locations grew consumer visit length over the weekend.
Oxford Partnership’s CEO, Alison Jordan, commented: “The weekend’s sales were a great result for the On Trade and exactly what the hospitality sector needed – here’s hoping the Easter weekend will continue this trajectory and show equally strong results.”
