Strong appetite for takeaway and delivery as sales soar past pre-Covid levels
Restaurant groups- including Pizza Express and Honest Burgers -more than doubled their delivery and takeaway sales from pre-Covid levels last month.
Combined sales were 130 per cent higher than in September 2019, the CGA & Slerp Hospitality at Home Tracker revealed.
Sales are also 35 per cent higher than in September 2020, with signs that the reopening of dining in has not satiated Brits’ hunger for ordering food.
Separate data from CGA showed that managed restaurants, pubs and bars’ sales swelled eight per cent on September 2019.
Delivery popularity
Deliveries and takeaways were worth 29 per cent of the total sales of all businesses contributing data to the tracker, including Nando’s, Burger King and TGI Fridays.
September’s growth in delivery sales was more than five times higher than takeaways, thanks to the popularity of apps including Uber Eats and Deliveroo.. Drinks accounted for just under 10 per cent of all sales.
Karl Chessell, director at CGA said: “Delivery and takeaway sales have dipped from the heights of lockdown, but September’s figures show they will stay a crucial part of restaurant and pub operations.
“It’s particularly pleasing to see that at-home sales seem to be complementing rather than cannibalising eat-out spending, even as restaurants and pubs settle back towards normality. While the post-Covid balance of the two sectors won’t be clear for a while yet, there’s no reason why businesses can’t thrive in both in the future.”