Amid a boost a trade caused by sunny weather over the month, insolvencies in the sector fell, also dropping 2.5% month-on-month.
Additionally, the Government’s company insolvency statistics show that hospitality insolvencies are down 12% in the 12 months to April 2025, falling from 3,824 in the 12 months to April 2024 to 3,369.
“April was a strong month for the hospitality industry, with the sunny weather boosting operators’ top line which translated into fewer insolvencies,” says Saxon Moseley, partner and head of leisure and hospitality at RSM UK.
The CGA RSM Hospitality Business Tracker for April showed that managed pubs enjoyed like-for-like sales growth of 9.1% over the month as the warm weather encouraged consumers into beer gardens.
By contrast, however, restaurant groups saw sales fall 0.9% year-on-year, while bars continued a long run of negative numbers with trading down 4.5%.
Sales across all hospitality group outlets were 4.2% ahead of April 2024 — comfortably beating the UK’s recent rates of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index.
Moseley warns that insolvencies in the sector are likely to rise again soon following a downturn in trade in May, as evidenced by figures in the most recent CGA RSM Hospitality Business Tracker.
Across the sector, Britain’s leading managed hospitality groups saw sales slip by 1% year-on-year in May, according to the data.
“May’s data paints a different picture,” he continues.
“This downturn in trade combined with inflationary pressures and global uncertainty means we could see a return to higher levels of insolvencies in the coming months.
“Restaurant inflation ticked up slightly to 4% year-on-year in May, which is likely to be driven by operators passing on higher costs to consumers.
“However, the risk of putting prices up too much is that it could cause consumers to cut back spending, which could be detrimental to the sector during this crucial summer trading period.
“With consumer confidence continuing to improve and hotter weather in June, it’s hoped we’ll start to see this translate into more spending.
“The concern will be if inflation persists in areas that directly hits household budgets, this may delay any meaningful recovery in consumer confidence and future spend on eating and drinking out.”