Northern restaurant and bar scene powers ahead of London

By Lisa Riley

Published: 15 March, 2018

The restaurant and bar scenes in Liverpool, Manchester & Leeds have been revealed as growing at rates more than double those of London.

During the past five years, the number of city centre outlets within each of the three cities have increased by over 20% - driven by independents, compared to a 10.4% increase of sites in the capital during the same period, according to the latest industry data released today.

Up 25.20%, Liverpool now counts 408 sites making it the fastest growing, closely followed by Manchester – up 20.9% to 622 outlets, with Leeds increasing its number of sites by 20.50% to 341, according to the CGA data compiled for the Northern Restaurant & Bar show (NRB).

Albeit from a much smaller platform – there are 3288 outlets across London city centre, the growth across the northern cities was impressive, said Jamie Campbell, retail business unit director, CGA.

“Of course London is a much bigger restaurant and bar scene in absolute terms, but percentages don’t lie, the change in the cities in the north is more pronounced and has a proportionally greater impact on diners, whether residents or tourists,” he said.

In addition to the data released today, CGA was currently working on data that showed growth in the region was driven by independents, with the featured northern cities showing an increase in independent outlets at over twice the national rate, said Campbell.

Overall, northern cities occupied six of the places in the top eight, whereas London was in the fourteenth spot.

Thom Hetherington, CEO, NRB, said he was “delighted but not surprised” by the data.

“We have seen the changes first hand - new restaurants and bars are opening almost every day -Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds are building top class food and drink scenes, and that’s great news for diners.”

The NRB trade show returns to Manchester next week on 20 and 21 March featuring 275 exhibitors.

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