A welcome weekend of sport helped to keep the tills ringing across the UK on trade with the winning fans in Scotland and Liverpool leading the charge.
Scotland’s storming performance against England on Saturday ensured they won the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield with a final score of 31-21, and Scottish draught beer and cider sales increased by a staggering +19% as a result, with fans celebrating into the night.
Then Sunday brought the final of the Carabao Cup between Liverpool and Chelsea with pubs that showed it selling +88 extra pints (+£413) vs. those not subscribing to Sky Sports.
Not unexpectedly, the biggest winners were the North West and London, with the Liverpool L postcode the highest up +83% across the entire region, which itself showed an already whopping uplift of +27%, as fans celebrated the last gasp winner from their Super Captain Virgil van Dijk who headed Liverpool to a 1-0 victory over Chelsea. The Reds Captain scored deep into extra time of the showpiece to secure the club its record-extending 10th title in the competition. The extra time gave pubs showing the game a bumper afternoon as the game extended for a further nail biting 30 minutes with kick off at 3pm. The HA Wembley postcode also delivered a very successful day for the on trade, reporting sales 3 times higher than average with fans visiting pubs pre and post the game.
Off the pitch, despite the overall trade picture -5.1% in the previous full week and -5.8% in the latest 4 weeks versus the same time periods in 2023, the sports brought that decline up to a much healthier -1.5%, and the even better news is that the weekend scored an 18.4% uplift versus all other weekends so far in 2024. A whopping 26.5 million pints of draught beer and cider were sold with the average pub pouring 700 pints (an extra 109 versus the average weekend thus far in 2024) equating to £3,236 income generator.
Unsurprisingly, Scotland had the thirstiest fans, who drank a staggering extra 189 pints, England came in not too far behind with 126 pints and Wales trailed with an extra 44 pints.
Overall Oxford Partnership reported footfall growing ahead of volume with the weekend +1.8% vs. 2023 driven by strong increases in Sunday trade. Suburbia and Rural led the way +2.1% and +1.1% respectively. City Centres declined slightly driven by a fall in footfall on a Saturday.
Average consumer dwell time also grew to an average consumer visit of 135 mins vs. 131 mins in the same week last year up +3.1%. Suburbia saw the highest growth +6.1% whilst both Rural & City Centre locations were +2.3% vs. the same weekend in 2023.
Henry Powell, Managing Partner at Oxford Partnership, commented: “What a fantastic uplift for pubs showing the Carabao Cup, yet again demonstrating the power of live sport to drive the market forward. And, of course, the Six Nations continues to deliver the sales we have seen time and time again – a real boost for the On Trade.”
