Hospitality sales saw a marginal increase of 2.7% in May compared with the same month in 2022, according to data released by management software specialists S4labour.
The data reveals that the overall increase was driven by food-focused sites, which were up 5.7% compared with last year, while sales in drink-focused sites were down 0.9%.
Chris Welham, chief customer officer at S4labour, said:
“May marks the second positive month in a row. However, with warmer weather and three bank holidays, growth is lower than operators would have expected and falls below the rate of inflation. Dry weather and longer weekends seem to have encouraged more at-home drinking, rather than spending in pubs.” The data also suggests the growth was split relatively evenly between London and outside the capital, with a 3.1% and 2.7% like-for-like increase respectively.
