April bar sales down 90%

Bar sales volumes decreased by 90.5% last April and bar sales values were down by 90.4% when compared to April 2019 according to provisional seasonally-adjusted figures from the CSO’s Retail Sales Index report for April.

April’s bar sales volumes were 77.1% down on the previous month, March, while sales values showed a decline of 77.5%.

While some pubs closed up altogether as a result of Covid-19 thus selling nothing at all, others continued selling or pivoted towards off-sales of alcohol and takeaway foods.

Final figures for March show a bar sales volume decline of 58.2% accompanied by a 57.9% decline in values when compared to the same month in 2019.

March’s Bar sales were 56.9% down in both volume and value on the previous month, February.

Across the three months February to April bar sales showed a decline of 51.4% in volume and a value decline of 50.8% compared to the same period in 2019.

Contrasting this with the immediately prior three-month period November 2019 to January 2020 bar sales showed a decline in of 50.2% in volume and 49.9% in value.