Positive consumer outlook and current sales trends suggest strong finish to the year for the On Premise, reveals latest CGA research.
CGA notes the on-premise is critical, even for marketers focused on off-premise sales. Some 53% of consumers say menu options and drink choices in bars and restaurants influence their alcohol purchase in stores, and 65% of consumers agree they first tried some of their favorities drinks in bars and restaurants.
But money talks, and 46% of consumers say they spend more on alcohol in bars and restaurants than in stores during a typical month. Allso, seven in 10 consumers have visited the On Premise for food in the past two weeks, with two in five having done so for a drink-led occasion. These levels are consistent with November.
Average check value was up 7% in the latest week and traffic was up 2%, CGA’s BeverageTrak service finds.
Looking at the holidays and the outlook for 2022, CGA notes that
Christmas Day was the biggest day of 2019 for check value and New Year’s Eve was the fourth biggest day for value velocity – suggesting that combined with planned consumer visitation this year, operators should see a strong performance across this period.
Fifty-four percent of consumers plan to partake in Dry January, but only 54% of those plan to abstain from alcohol in bars/restaurants and a mere 8% of Dry January participants do not plan to visit the bars/restaurants for the month.
Looking further out, 37% of consumers expect their bar/restaurant spend to increase in the next 6 months vs. 9% who anticipate spending less.
And 84% of consumers plan to travel in the next 12 months with 62% of those taking leisure trips, a positive sign for the hospitality industry as a whole, CGA says.