Bar sales volumes down 25% between 2000 and 2009
Last May bar sales fell 13 per cent compared to the same month in 2009, thus continuing a declining trend with sales values down even more – by 15.8 per cent, according to the Marketing Institute’s Consumer Market Monitor for Q2 of 2010.
equivalent to a reduction of 2.7 per cent per annum, states Consumer Market Monitor, “However, the value of bar sales only increased by two per cent in total over the same period due to increases in unit prices and taxes.
“This declining pattern continued into 2009 with sales volume down 10 per cent and value down
8.8 per cent for the year.
“This is partly driven by a decline in beer consumption (more than 25 per cent in the last
decade) but it has also been affected by cross-border shopping.”
But the report continues, “Indications are that pub sales are also down in the UK. Pub beer sales fell by 8.8 per cent in the first quarter and overall beer sales were down by 5.1 per cent on the first quarter of 2009”.
Bar sales follow a seasonal pattern with a peak in December followed by a trough in January each year, rising through the late Spring and into the early Summer months.
The bar trade in Ireland has been in decline for several years, it observes, as a result of a combination of factors including the introduction of the smoking ban, random breath-testing and changing consumer lifestyles.
“Bar sales have also been falling in the UK by 4.2 per cent in 2009 compared with 5.5 per cent in
2008. This resulted in the closure of 2,365 pubs during the year, bringing the total
down to 52,500.”
