Managed restaurant and pub groups see strong delivery and takeaway sales in August

By Michelle Perrett

Published: 20 September, 2021

Delivery and takeaway sales of managed restaurant and pub groups were close to treble their pre-pandemic levels in August 2021, the latest edition of the CGA & Slerp Hospitality at Home Tracker has revealed.

The tracker showed that sales were 176% higher than in August 2019, and 70% higher than in August 2020, when restaurants and pubs were trading under Covid restrictions.

It also said that drinks accounted for 10% of all order sales in August – a sign of its growing importance in the delivery and takeaway sector.

While year-on-year growth has slowed since the first quarter of 2021, when the sector was completely closed for eating-in, deliveries and takeaways accounted for 27% of managed operators’ total sales in August.

The tracker also showed that 2021-on-2020 growth in home delivery sales were more than five times the size of takeaways, where customers collect the food and drinks themselves.

The separate Coffer CGA Business Tracker, with a different cohort of contributing companies, has revealed managed restaurants, pubs and bars grew sales by 5% on August 2019.

“Businesses have seen the potential of embracing a multi-channel strategy – online and on premise together – which is directly impacting how they’re thinking about growing their businesses moving forward,” said JP Then, founder of online ordering system, Slerp.

“It’s affecting everything from retail footprints and site layouts to who they need to hire in head office to manage their digital channels. The most progressive businesses are seeing digital as a core part of their growth strategy, not just incremental revenue for right now.”

Karl Chessell, CGA’s business unit director for hospitality operators and food EMEA, said that deliveries and takeaways were a big factor in groups’ robust trading in August.

“Lingering safety concerns about going out and large numbers of people staying close to home for holidays will both have boosted the market in the short term. In the longer run, the convenience and quality of deliveries that people experienced during the pandemic has helped to build a substantial new market that is here to stay,” he said.

CGA collected sales figures directly from 18 out of the 22 leading companies participating in the CGA & Slerp Hospitality at Home Tracker.

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