The UKHospitality Quarterly Tracker, in association with CGA, shows that the revenue generated in the last 12 months is 4.1% above generated pre-pandemic, demonstrating strong consumer demand but still falling significantly below the ‘like-for-like’ sales required to keep up with inflation.
The tracker also shows that the sector’s turnover contracted by 0.3% in Q1 this year, compared to Q1 in 2022.
UKHospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said: “Unfortunately, these figures no longer come as a surprise and simply reinforce the chronic nature of the pressure hospitality is under due to inflation. Despite consumer demand remaining strong and revenue being up on 2019, businesses are simply nowhere near able to keep up with the cost pressures they’re facing across energy, food and drink.
“Even more concerning is that our fears that this endless pressure would cause the sector to contract are starting to be realised, with turnover contracting in the first quarter of this year.
“While it’s marginal at the moment, we want to stem that bleeding, so support from Government is essential. Energy remains the single biggest cost to businesses and direction to energy suppliers from Ofgem and the Government to renegotiate the highest contracts is an essential starting point.”
The UKHospitality Quarterly Tracker is compiled by CGA by NIQ and based on its Trading Index and OPM data on food and drink sales across the on-trade. It is combined with hotel data supplied by STR and information provided by many leading hospitality and contract-catering businesses.
