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Cocktail group reports record festive trading

Published:  05 January, 2017

Early reports show that the hospitality industry received a welcome boost over the Christmas period thanks in part to December 23, 24 and 25 falling over the weekend.

Early reports show that the hospitality industry received a welcome boost over the Christmas period thanks in part to December 23, 24 and 25 falling over the weekend.

Cocktail bar group Be At One, which operates 31 bars across the UK including 18 in London, saw total sales jump 30%, for the five weeks of December.

During that period, the group sold a total of 516,510 cocktails with average sales per day of its best-selling cocktail - a Pornstar Martini - of 2,300 (71,300 in total).

Sold at £9.80 per serve, this brought in almost £700,000 in revenues.

Sales peaked on Friday, December 16, the first of the two so-called 'Mad Fridays' during the month, with the group's bars registering net sales of £340,000.

Its Greek Street in London's Soho, took £37,000 on that day.

A notable source of growth was a sharp rise in group bookings - up 38% like-for-like versus 2015 and up 56% in total for the group.

New Year's Eve followed this trend, with bookings up 60% in total across all sites

The group also saw a sharp jump in the sale of pre-booked Christmas packages, up 600% year-on-year

"December trading tends to be a very strong period for Be At One as guests seek out a high-quality and special experience to celebrate the festive season," Steve Locke, co-founder and Director, remarked.

"What is particularly pleasing this year is our performance in terms of bookings and our guests take up of special Christmas packages, which are massively up and has been embraced and driven by our hard-working teams."

In addition, customers made the most of the Bank Holiday on 2 January, with sales on New Year's Day up 140% across the group.

Cardiff was the best performing bar on Boxing Day in terms of revenue, while Shoreditch was the highest-taking bar on New Year's Day.

Guests in Birmingham consumed the most amount Champagne, drinking an impressive 500 bottles in December, while Milton Keynes recorded the best like-for-like sales growth for bookings, up 116%.

Be At One is a specialist cocktail venue, founded in 1998 by Steve Locke, Leigh Miller and Rhys Oldfield.

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