December bar sales up 5.9%

It was a good Christmas for the licensed trade with sales volumes showing growth in December compared to the same month in 2014 according to preliminary estimates from the CSO.

December’s bar sales volumes were up 5.9% in December 2015 compared to December 2014 while values were up 6.2%.

December’s volume sales were down by 0.1% on those of November while they level-pegged in value.

Final figures for November show sales volumes up 5.2% compared with November 2014 and up by 5.5% in value. Bar sales volumes remained unchanged from November and down by 0.8% in value compared with November.

Over the October to December quarter bar sales volumes showed growth of 5.8% on the same period in 2014 while bar sales values grew 6.4%.

Compared to the previous quarter, July to September, sales volumes were down 1.2% in both volume and value.

Retail sales volumes generally rose 6.3% in December 2015 compared to December 2014.