All-round improvement in bar sales

Just to cheer you up on this miserably dank day, the latest seasonally-adjusted provisional bar sales figures for May from the CSO show an all-round improvement for the country’s licensed trade.

Sales volumes in bars showed a 4.0% increase in May compared with May 2015 while values rose 5.1%.

Compared to the previous month, April, May’s sales volumes were up 1.3% while values were up 1.7%.

Final figures for April show seasonally-adjusted bar sales volumes up 4.1% compared to April 2015 while bar sales values rose 4.9%.

Bar sales volumes were up 0.2% in April compared to the previous month, March, while bar sales values showed a rise of 0.5%.

Over the March to May quarter bar sales volumes grew 4.7% when compared to the same three-month period in 2015 while bar sales values rose 5.4%.

Bar sales volumes were up 0.9% when the February to April quarter is compared to the previous December 2015 to February 2016 quarter with bar sales values up 1.1%.

These latest figures reflect a promising degree of recovery for the licensed trade in Dublin city centre since September 2014 according to LVA Chief Executive Donall O’Keeffe, “Last Autumn and Christmas – and April this year – found good operators in the suburbs and Dublin city centre experiencing growth in trade.

“This year has proved to be very solid across the city and out into the suburbs and country,” he added, “I’m optimistic about 2016 with lots of factors in our favour.”

These include a strong tourist performance – CSO data just released shows that the number of overseas visits to Ireland in the first five months of 2016 increased by 13.7% compared to the corresponding period of 2015 – strong growth in consumer confidence and a better employment outlook in the medium term.

He’s not only encouraged by the good performance of city centre pubs but points out that good operations in the suburbs are also back in growth.

“In the city centre, tourists in particular have been a very significant contributor to raised levels of business.

“The Euros were good for June not only because of Ireland’s participation but we also had England, Wales and Northern Ireland involved there, so there were plenty of well-known teams that punters will have an interest in.”