A pub boss has hailed office workers for ditching work from home as boozers see an increase in footfall on Fridays.
Simon Emeny, CEO of Fuller’s said his pub chain has recently seen more customers returning to traditional, pre-pandemic working schedules.
Workers seem to have moved away from the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday ‘new normal’ office schedule, with Fridays seeing more footfall in pubs as more people go into the office for work.
Emeny said: “What we’re seeing with urban areas, particularly London, is that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is still strong, but actually we are seeing growth on Mondays and Fridays.
“We’ve seen a return to much more normalised consumer behaviour – there’s definitely a big return to offices and good growth in tourism.”
As people started to slowly return to offices following the pandemic, Mondays and Fridays were the least popular days.
This had a significant impact on the pub trade, which benefitted from Friday being a peak time for drinkers.
However, as time passes, more and more businesses have ordered their employees to return to the office full-time.
The Fuller’s boss added: “People that I speak to are thriving being back in offices again, thriving working as teams and we’re certainly seeing that in our sales on Mondays and Fridays.
“I feel very optimistic that over the course of time, homeworking is going to dissipate.”
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Fuller’s has seen a 61 per cent rise in adjusted pre-tax profits over the year to March 30
PA
Fuller’s, which runs 369 pubs across the UK, posted a 61 per cent rise in adjusted pre-tax profits over the year to March 30.
Their profits went from £12.7million to £20.5m, spurred by an 11 per cent rise in like-for-like sales.
Emeny said: “It has been a strong year for Fuller’s and I am pleased and proud of the progress we have made. All parts of the company have performed well.
“Fuller’s has delivered these excellent results in the last financial year, despite the high inflationary environment.
“As of today, those inflationary pressures – especially in regard to food and energy – have reduced, which gives us additional confidence in the coming year.
“We have continued to build on this strong momentum with like-for-like sales in the first ten weeks of the year rising by 4.4 per cent.”