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Britain’s bar numbers grow in 2024

The number of bars in Britain rose by 5.9% in the past 12 months – the largest of all hospitality segments – but nightclubs and food-led venues suffered losses.

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Bars posted the highest year-on-year growth in terms of number of sites in 2024

The new Hospitality Market Monitor study from CGA by NIQ and global consulting firm AlixPartners revealed that there were 4,621 bars in Britain as of December 2024, an increase of 5.9% on December 2023 (4,363).

Across all licensed outlets by segment, bars posted the highest year-on-year growth in terms of number of sites, followed by bar-restaurants (up 4.1%) and high street pubs (up by 3.7%).

Comparing December 2024 to December 2023, nightclubs in Britain saw their numbers dwindle by 2.7% and restaurants fell by 0.6%.

Community pub numbers suffered a 1.1% decrease in the past year, while food pubs dipped by 3.2%.

While the number of food-led venues has fallen by 0.7% year on year, total drink-led sites managed to grow slightly by 0.5%.

The total number of licensed venues was stagnant at 99,120 in December 2024, compared to 99,113 in the same month in 2023.

CGA said 2024 represented a ‘year of solid consolidation’ for the industry after declines in 2022 and 2023, when the licensed sector shrunk by 4.5% and 2.9% respectively.

The study noted that closures accelerated in the last three months of 2024. Hospitality site numbers contracted by 0.7% between September 2024 and December 2024 – equivalent to more than eight net closures per day – with casual dining and other restaurants among the segments with the most casualties.

Both bars and ‘large venue’ numbers were almost stagnant with a 0.2% uptick in the last quarter of 2024, while bar-restaurants saw a 0.8% gain. All other segments were in decline, with restaurants suffering the most at a 2.3% contraction.

‘Impressive resilience’

Karl Chessell, CGA by NIQ’s director – hospitality operators and food, EMEA, said: “Given all the challenges that were thrown at hospitality in 2024, stability in site numbers shows the impressive resilience of operators.

“However, we continue to see a rapid churn of sites as the sector adapts to consumers’ changing habits, while hundreds of net closures in the final quarter of the year emphasise that the burden of costs – made even heavier by the autumn budget – is threatening hospitality’s fragile renewal.

“The long-term confidence of leaders, entrepreneurs and investors is solid, but January has already brought further closures of venues that clung on through Christmas. With economic uncertainty lingering, many more hospitality venues remain extremely vulnerable.”

Graeme Smith, AlixPartners’ managing director, cited the changes to the national minimum wage, national insurance and business rates as factors that could “render many marginal sites unviable and cause businesses to look at how to right-size their operations for this new environment”.

‘M&A to build’

He added: “While we expect the consumer outlook to improve and M&A to build as we move further through the year, a significant number of businesses will remain vulnerable.

“The turnover of sites will continue too, we expect, as operators increasingly focus on core operations, close ancillary sites and reassess opening pipelines.

“Restructurings and rescue deals will be an inevitable and necessary feature of this stage in the business cycle.”

Earlier this month, CGA by NIQ revealed the UK has lost nearly 28,000 licensed venues since March 2020 – equal to 119 sites a week.

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