Year-on-year growth in delivery and takeaway sales at Britain’s leading restaurant groups slowed to 1.9% in December 2024, CGA by NIQ’s latest Hospitality at Home Tracker shows.
It means at-home sales have now risen for 19 months in a row. However, the latest number is well short of November’s growth of 6.2% and marks the Tracker’s lowest point since March. For the first time in 2024, it fell slightly below the UK’s general monthly rate of inflation of 2.4%, as measured by the Consumers Prices Index.
December’s figure may reflect consumers’ shift towards going out rather than ordering in over Christmas as their spending confidence increased. They were further encouraged out of home by generally mild weather and the timing of festive holidays, which gave many consumers longer periods of time off work.
A breakdown of CGA’s Hospitality at Home Tracker indicates 2.2% like-for-like growth in delivery sales, while takeaway and click-and-collect revenue was flatter at 1.4%. Total delivery and takeaway sales—including from sites opened in the last 12 months—rose by 10.3%.
Karl Chessell, CGA by NIQ’s director – hospitality operators and food, EMEA, said: “After 11 months of real-terms growth for deliveries and takeaways, December’s slip below inflation was a disappointing end to 2024 for restaurant groups. But the flipside of the coin is that many consumers were confident enough to head out to celebrate rather than stay in. As more of their economic pressures ease we can be cautiously optimistic about growth in both channels in 2025, but the mounting burden of costs for hospitality groups will put pressure on margins for some time to come.”