Restaurants and pubs enjoy a profitable 2009

UK pub and restaurant sales rose by a total of 4.7% for 2009 compared to the previous year, new results have shown.

The monthly Coffer Peach Business Tracker, run in partnership with KPMG, investment bank UBS and the Coffer Group, also showed that December 2009 enjoyed a year-on-year increase of 2.9%.

While such results would usually suggest a healthy year for pubs and restaurants, economists have been quick to underline that last year's trading was compared against a particularly week 2008, when the onset of the recession had put many firms into financial trouble.

Nonetheless, it is thought that bar and restaurant owners will take encouragement from news of the increase.

In terms of monthly figures, the report revealed that November 2009 sales were down by 7.4% on October. Peter Martin, owner of the Peach Factory, said that poor weather had played a part in the drop following prolonged periods of rainfall that month.

20/01/10