The fastest pace of restaurant, pub and bar openings at the moment is to be found in the north east, the latest edition of the AlixPartners CGA Peach Market Growth Monitor reveals.
Britain’s number of food-led licensed premises declined by 1.2% in the 12 months to March—but the total in the Tyne Tees region increased by 3.5% in the same period, a far sharper increase than any other region. Including pubs, bars and other licensed premises as well as restaurants, Tyne Tees recorded a 0.1% increase, against a national average of a 1.2% fall.
It continues a positive long-term trend in the region that has seen food-led licensed premises increase by 23.6% in the last five years—a rate that is five percentage points higher than any other part of the country.
The trend has been driven by a revolution in eating out in Newcastle, where the number of food-led licensed premises has increased by more than a third since 2012—faster than any large British city except Manchester. The bulk of the openings have come from casual dining restaurants.
The popularity of leisure developments including Newcastle’s Eldon Square and Gateshead’s intu Metrocentre, where many casual dining groups have opened in recent years, has been another boost to the north east’s eating out sector. There have also been notable openings in towns around Newcastle, and rising interest in food in surrounding Northumberland.
CGA Peach vice president Peter Martin said: “The new AlixPartners CGA Peach Market Growth Monitor confirms the strength of many British cities and regions beyond London and the south east. Ambitious brands have made Newcastle one of their first stops on the road to expansion, and there is a vibrancy across much of the region that might surprise some. Taking advantage of these and other regional opportunities identified by our Monitor will help multi-site operators to succeed in the years ahead.”
The AlixPartners CGA Peach Market Growth Monitor is produced quarterly and is drawn from CGA’s Outlet Index, a comprehensive and continually updated database of all licensed premises in Great Britain.
For more information about the Market Growth Monitor, data or more granular analyses, please contact CGA Peach account director Jamie Campbell at jamie.campbell@cgapeach.co.uk. For more information about AlixPartners and its global financial advisory services, contact managing director Paul Hemming at phemming@alixpartners.com.
