Restaurant sales surge in August as World Cup ends
Consumers returned to eating out after mostly visiting pubs during the games.
August is the second strongest month for restaurant groups since the start of 2025, growing by 2.4% year-on-year, according to the latest NIQ RSM Hospitality Business Tracker.
Consumers returned to eating out after focusing on pub visits during the World Cup.
Like-for-like sales at leading managed groups were 0.8% above the levels of August 2025. However, August’s figure is also a slight cooling from growth of 1.4% in July 2026, when hospitality was boosted by the football World Cup. It is also below the country’s recent level of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index. Hospitality has not achieved real-terms monthly growth for 16 consecutive months.
The end of the tournament made August tougher for pub groups, as their sales finished only 0.5% ahead of the same month last year. Excessive heat in many parts of Britain may also have kept some drinkers away from pubs. Bar groups saw sales slip by 2.5% year-on-year, and the on-the-go sector finished 5.5% behind.
Whilst like-for-like growth has been modest in 2026, results have been significantly stronger on a total sales basis. Adding in venues that were launched in the previous 12 months, the NIQ RSM Hospitality Business Tracker shows sales rose by 4.1% year-on-year in August.
For hospitality as a whole, trading was fractionally weaker in London than in the rest of the country in August. Groups’ like-for-like sales rose by 0.6% within the M25, and by 0.8% further afield.
