The forthcoming late May bank holiday weekend promises to be a bumper one for sport with the Investec Champions Cup Final seeing Leinster take on Toulouse at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium. But the big sporting event of the weekend has to be the FA Cup Final which will feature Manchester City facing up to Manchester United at Wembley Stadium, a game not to be missed! Plus not forgetting the Scottish Cup Final of Celtic v Rangers and finally, Sunday will see the much anticipated EFL Championship Play-off final of Leeds United versus Southampton, so with the extra day off, half term looming, plenty of pre-election chatter and oodles of great sport, we should see a strong weekend in the on trade ahead, irrespective of the weather!
Looking back to last year, our final May bank holiday weekend of the year (Friday through to Monday) saw drinkers consume a whopping 52.8 million pints of draught beer and cider across the UK, which was an increase of +10.4% versus 2022 (the Jubilee weekend).
In individual pub terms, that equated to an extra +132 pints sold per pub versus the same period in 2022 and, most importantly £200+ extra in the till.
Across the entire weekend, the average pub served 1,394 pints of Draught Beer & Cider, unquestionably helped by some glorious weather, and these sales equated to a £6,329 income generator.
Total Beer was up +10.4% vs. 2022 with the key growth driven by World Lager, Apple Cider and Stout.
So the question is: will we see the same increase in sales this year or will the potential patchy weather keep people at home? Last year saw the FA Cup Final as the no.2 driver of on trade sales across the quarter and the no. 3 across the entire year so there is every chance we will see a similar effect this year.
Oxford Partnership’s CEO, Alison Jordan, commented: “Last year’s bank holiday weekend was a bumper one for sports fans and added to some particularly good weather, the result was a really strong weekend of sales in the On Trade. Whilst we have no guarantee about the weather this coming weekend, the packed sports diary alone should really prove to be a shot in the arm to the on trade.”
