WHAT a difference the sun makes!
Throw in a ‘double’ holiday weekend and a triple dose of Premier League football action and it’s an almost perfect combination for pubs.
And the operators SLTN spoke to last week certainly seemed to agree.
After a fairly soggy winter, Easter weekend brought some longed-for sunshine – and with two bank holidays, consumers flocked to outlets to make the most of their time off and the weather.
In Fraserburgh, Dennis Forsyth said takings at his Cheers bar were up 30% on last year, while the manager of The Peartree in Edinburgh said Easter weekend trade was on a par with that during the Festival.
The Easter trade boost came as the Deloitte Consumer Tracker reported consumer confidence has climbed to its highest level in over two years; published last week, the report also said consumers’ confidence in their disposable income was up 7% in the first three months of 2014, compared to the last quarter of 2013.
As Scottish operators gear up for a busy summer, with the usual tourism trade expected to be bolstered by thousands of additional visitors attending events ranging from the Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup to Homecoming and the MTV Europe Music Awards, the positive picture looks set to continue.
If the sun shines, it might just be the icing on the cake.
