Published 1 September 2022
The second in our series with Paperchase, the UK’s leading hospitality accountancy, The Temperature Check returns to examine the heights of the heatwave over the summer. This regular update serves as a revenue and performance checker and is a comparison of financial data from 100 leading London restaurants, comparing monthly revenue data for 2022 with data from the corresponding months in 2019.
In this Temperature Check, we look at the month of July in both 2019 and 2022, and focus on the following data from 100 central London independent restaurants:
The post-Covid statistics reveal that in July 2022 total combined revenue surpassed that of July 2019, but total combined covers were down. This continues a trend first identified in May and June in our first of the Temperature Check series. Total revenue rose compared with 2019 with an average spend per head, up 17.6% on pre-pandemic levels, but down almost 30% on June 2022 (although this is consistent with June to July pre-pandemic trends).
Paperchase says: ‘Consumer confidence has clearly been affected by raw material price increases which have pushed up the cost of utilities, and restaurants passing this on to its customers, so, numbers suffered. In tough times, consumers are going out less frequently, but spending more per visit, resulting in a healthy figures on spend per head during this period.’
Traditionally, August is a far quieter month than the period of May to July, and with energy price rises on the horizon, the forecast for the coming period looks increasingly challenging.
Paperchase has delivered bespoke accounting services to the hospitality industry in the UK, Middle East and the USA for over 30 years. Paperchase is the leader in the market and the trusted advisor to over 400 operators with over 600 restaurants, with 30 Michelin Stars. Now in collaboration with CODE, Paperchase draws on the extensive weekly accounting data from 100 London based establishments, showing weekly trends in operating, in customer traffic, number of covers and other inciteful statistics the drive current trends in the industry, that may affect the whole sector. Paperchase are a Friend of CODE. For more information visit pchase.co.uk