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St Patrick’s Day brings in £81.3 million for UK on-trade
Three cheers for the Apostle of Ireland. St Patrick’s Day 2024, which took place on Sunday (17 March), boosted the UK’s pubs, bars and restaurants by £81.3 million, up from £78.9m the year before.
On average per transaction, 3.12% more was spent across St Patrick’s Day weekend in pubs, bars and restaurants this year in comparison to 2023, according to data from card payment provider Dojo. The average spend per transaction reached £15.19, versus £14.73 the previous year.
London may be home to the highest number of Irish citizens in Great Britain, but the London Irish didn’t come out on top in terms of average spend.
On St Patrick’s Day weekend, Chelmsford spent an average of £24.89 per transaction in pubs, bars and restaurants, which was the largest out of any city in the UK. Chelmsford residents outspent Londoners by 59p, as revellers in the capital averaged £24.30 per transaction, a decrease of -0.29% year on year.
Perth, located by the River Nay in Scotland, celebrated the hardest out of all the Scottish cities for St Patrick’s Day, spending an average of £22.68 per transaction, Dojo has calculated. Perthites increased their spend by 10.36% year on year, beating Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city.
Despite the increased cost of beer and the cost-of-living crisis, on-trade venues should be heartened to see spending up on 2023.
Last year, St Patrick’s Day, the final games of the Six Nations and Mother’s Day all took place within a three-day period, providing a much-needed boost for the industry. Thanks to a spike in interest in Guinness, stout sales were especially high, with 2.7 million pints (approximately £13m worth) sold – a figure reportedly 1,000,000 pints higher than on St Patrick’s Day the year prior. After that, the ‘Super Saturday’ of Six Nations fixtures saw 13.1 million pints of beer and cider sold, according to the data – an extra 65 pints per pub compared to an average weekend.
It’s therefore encouraging for hospitality businesses to see sales figures even higher in 2024 than they were last March.