Insight Reports

The good news is that pubs saw a decent uplift in sales of draught beer and cider of 2.3% versus 2023 and 14.2% versus the other weekends in 2024 thus far, with the Scottish fans topping the number of pints consumed, despite their last minute disappointment.

As the fifth week of the Six Nations unfolded alongside the Carabao Cup Final, UK pubs experienced a mixed weekend in sales performance. While overall sales declined by -2.1% YoY compared to the same weekend in 2024, pubs saw a +24.3% increase versus the average weekend in 2025, driven by heightened sporting excitement.

The UK hospitality sector experienced a strong weekend, with data from The Oxford Partnership’s Market Watch revealing notable increases in sales, footfall and draught beer and cider consumption across pubs and bars.

Guinness Six Nations Week 3 saw mixed pub sales: down -4.6% YoY, partly due to last year’s Carabao Cup Final, but up +14.8% vs. 2025 averages.

An estimated 29.4 million pints were sold from Friday to Sunday, with the average pub pouring 776 pints of draught beer and cider, generating approximately £3,940 in revenue.

One of the most striking trends emerging from 2024 is the remarkable surge in stout sales. This trend shows no sign of slowing as sales jumped by +16.4% in the first 5 weeks of 2025, making it the standout performer in the beer category.

Our Market Watch data service has revealed that a staggering 16.7 million pints were poured in the first round of the Guinness Six Nations Championship! Fans flocked to pubs, driving much-needed footfall, dwell time, and revenue across the sector.

Our Market Watch data has already shown the key importance of home nation games in driving footfall and sales

34.8 Million Pints Sold over the 5 key festive trading Days (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve & New Year’s Day) withs sales +2.6% vs. 2023.

As we review the results of Mad Friday across Great Britain, it’s clear that the performance of pubs varied significantly by region.

A tough budget drove concern throughout the whole of the On Trade with cost increases to business rates, employers national insurance and the national minimal wage. JDWetherspoon, which runs nearly 800 pubs across the country, said its tax and business costs are expected to increase by about £60 million over the next tax year.

The hope of an Indian Summer sadly never came to fruition and, as a result, the 4 weeks to end September brought disappointing results for the UK on trade. September saw draught beer volume continue to decline by 3.9%. This was still a 1.6% improvement on the previous month where draught beer volumes declined 5.5%. YTD volume continued the downward trajectory with a decline of 2%, a further 0.2% drop on August.

The appalling rioting that followed the shocking tragedy in Southport was very damaging for the trade which next month’s report will cover in detail. City Centre volumes were down -10.2% and opening hours were cut by -5.5% as outlets closed earlier and drinkers stayed away. Prior to this, both London and suburban areas saw volume growth in July with London +7.4% and suburbia up +4.3%.

Sadly, yet again, it is not coming home this time. Unfortunately, England faltered in the final to a stunning Spain but all was not lost as sales soared +90% compared to 2023 and an incredible +76.3% compared to an average Sunday in 2024.

Ollie Watkins sent fans into absolute ecstasy as they drank an amazing 12.5m pints which is +56% higher than predicted by the BBPA. This equates to +66% compared to the same day in 2023 and an enormous +88% versus the average Wednesday this year!

Our Market Watch data has already shown the key importance of home nation games in driving footfall and sales. In Euro 2020 all the biggest sales came from games featuring a home nation side and in the group stages weekly sales shifted to be largely on game days, but the real boost came in the knockout rounds and there appears to be no change to this trend in Euro 2024.

With the tournament kicking off the trade needs a strong home nation performance to lift sales. With news of mortgage arrears reaching their highest levels in more than seven years and the weather failing to warm up, we are all in need of some good news, so all eyes turn to Euro 2024 to give Hospitality a well-deserved boost.

Despite our high hopes, the weather proved to be a real dampener for the On Trade this late May Bank Holiday. Even though 49.9 million pints were sold across the 3-day weekend, this was still unfortunately an overall decline of -5.5% vs. the same weekend in 2023. The only saving grace across the predominantly wet weekend was Saturday, which was +2.8% vs. 2023, clearly driven by the huge sporting events. When we look at the heatmap (below) of sales over the entire weekend, we can see how football fans drove strong sales in Manchester, Glasgow, Southampton and Leeds.

Some good news to report in that outlet closures have slowed in the past 4 weeks and we see the rate fall to -1% year to date. Outlet closures have fallen to 1.8 outlets a day to the end of April compared to 2.2 outlets in the previous month. The biggest slow down in closure rates in in Urban areas as more and more businesses encourage workers back to the office.

Back with a bang, Tuesday saw the first match of the return of the much anticipated UEFA Champions League exclusive to TNT Sports, as Manchester City look to defend their crown under manager Pep Guardiola.

The festive season kicked off in style this week with a whopping 35.9m pints being sold across UK pubs in this first Christmas week. Compared to the same week last year, we see that overall Draught Pint Sales are up by +2.3%. The shape of the week has also changed versus last year with Wednesday to Saturday now accounting for 69.3% of sales which equates to a +8.8% increase vs. 2022.

Volumes weaken this week as footfall falls behind 2022 levels for Saturday & Sunday as the trade cannot compete with the single biggest sales day of 2022 (England’s World Cup Quarter Finals). 5th December – 11th December 2022 vs. 4th December – 10th December 2023

Christmas delivered a much-needed boost to the UK On Trade with the traditional ‘Mad Friday’ producing a sales boost that demonstrated a resurgence to pre-pandemic drinking habits, with Draught Beer and Cider sales up +8.8% for December, with the last two weeks of the month +7.6%.

Despite some intermittent sightings of the elusive sun across the weekend, unfortunately the patchy weather contributed to a somewhat lacklustre few days for the on trade. However, there was some good news with Saturday becoming the biggest sales day this year, even surpassing the same day in 2019.

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.

Our new On Trade Tracker provides a monthly top-level snapshot of pub, bar and restaurant performance in the UK. The data is drawn from Oxford’s Market Watch, Vianet Plc’s Draught Volume Data Pool and Barclays UK Debit and Credit Transactional Data.

The budget failed to deliver any respite to the hospitality industry, even the rugby and Mother’s Day couldn’t save last weekend. Saturday was a day of upsets as Scotland were downed by Italy and English fans celebrated a last gasp victory over Ireland. Meanwhile, France pulled away in the final quarter against Wales. The trade will be hoping for a busy weekend with the final ‘Super Saturday’ round of the Guinness Six Nations and, of course, St Patrick’s Day.

The celebrations for the St Patrick’s Day weekend started on Friday and continued through to the day itself on Sunday the 17th with sales across the 3 days up +3.3% versus the same weekend in 2023. In addition to this, the weekend was +11% up versus every other weekend in 2024 thus far, which was a real result for the hospitality industry that has struggled to see any real momentum as yet this year.

For the latest four-week period to 31st March (Week 14), volumes grew +2.4% vs. the same period last year, as consumers celebrated an earlier Easter than 2023 as well as the Guinness Six Nations, and a multitude of big Football fixtures. Over the Easter break, Suburban outlets alone saw sales grow by +7.2% in Week 14.