Weather lifts July trading for pubs and restaurants

Restaurants and pubs have enjoyed healthy trading over the summer, thanks to good weather.

Average like-for-like sales across leading restaurant and pub groups were up 1.9% in July, according to the Coffer Peach Business Tracker, following 1.4% growth in like-for-likes in June.

Total sales, which include those from new openings, were ahead +3.3% on July 2009.

Commenting on the figures, Peach Factory's Peter Martin said: "This is good news for the market, particularly as the impact of discounting is now being ironed out. The bigger operators are showing a lot of resilience. These figures show strong demand from the public, and include the start of the school holidays. We may be experiencing a boost from holidaying at home this year."

The monthly tracker figures are produced by Peach Factory in partnership with KPMG, UBS and the Coffer Group and monitor performance across 16 pub and restaurant operators. Companies taking part in the survey include Mitchells & Butlers, Whitbread, Pizza Hut, Punch Pub Co, Gondola and Tragus.

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By Neil Gerrard

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