The latest Greene King Leisure Spend Tracker reports a 2% year-on-year rise in the amount British households spent on leisure during August. Household spend was up £5 to £247 on Total Leisure last month, driven by Eating Out.
The average household spent 11% more on Eating Out compared to the same month last year, which was led by households with kids, indicating the importance of dining out for Brits.
Commenting on the report, Steve Jebson, Greene King’s commercial director, said: “With Eating Out up 11% compared to last year, it is clear this activity is becoming an increasingly important part of the British household’s leisure repertoire, particularly in family households. We believe the disappointing August weather drove customers to eat inside restaurants rather than in pub ‘beer gardens’. It would also appear that eating out is becoming less of a luxury, but increasingly the preferred way for people to spend their time with friends and family.”
There was also year-on-year growth in Total Leisure spend across households across the whole of Great Britain, revealing that the whole country is showing positive signs of growth as the economy recovers. Steve added: “In spite of continued pressure on real earnings, growing consumer confidence helped drive modest growth in spend on out of home leisure in August across all areas.”
Greene King has looked at how often households plan to watch Premiership football in a pub during the current season, as Steve explains: “Twenty five per cent of GB adults anticipate they will go to the pub at least once to watch a Premiership match this season and more than a third of these intend to go at least once a month.” Looking at the gender divide, Steve continues: “One in three men expect to watch Premiership football in the pub this season, but interestingly one in six women plan to as well.”
Key highlights
- The first year-on-year data from the Greene King Leisure Spend Tracker reports the average British household spent 2% (£5) more on leisure in August, taking the total spend to £247 compared to £242 in the same month last year
- The growth came from Eating Out, where households spent 11% more year-on-year, driven by families
- The average household increased spend on total leisure by 22% compared to July, due to families looking to occupy kids during the summer holidays. In August, family household spending was at its highest spend level to date at £328
- Drinking Out spend fell by 2% year-on-year, due to unseasonably cold weather, particularly during the August bank holiday weekend, making ‘beer gardens’ less of a draw than in August last year
- Households in London and the South East, as well as the rest of GB, saw year-on-year growth, a positive indication that both areas are moving in tandem as the economy recovers
- We have looked at customer intentions to watch football in pubs, in conjunction with the start of the new football season, and the analysis shows that 25% of GB adults plan to go to the pub at least once to watch a premiership football match during the current season
Greene King Leisure Spend Tracker
- The Greene King Leisure Spend Tracker is part of an omnibus questionnaire run on behalf of Greene King by research partner YouGov and analysed in conjunction with Trajectory Partnership.
- The Greene King Leisure Spend Tracker is the first of its kind in Britain and aims to provide greater insights into consumer discretionary spending.
- Focuses on spending patterns across leisure sectors such as eating out, drinking out, gambling, cinema-going, health & fitness and live events.
- Each month’s report is based on an online, nationally representative sample of c. 2,000 individuals (GB, 18+), reflecting the leisure behaviour of c. 2,000 households. Data has been collected every month since August 2013.
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