Storms Austen and Boelo drove British pub drinks sales down 14.2% on a late-October Saturday

Storms Austen and Boelo cut into late-October drinks sales at pubs, bars and other licensed venues across Britain, according to data released on November 6 by NIQ, which said bad weather hit a key trading weekend and left the sector with a soft finish to the month.

NIQ’s Daily Drinks Tracker showed average sales in managed venues in the week ending Saturday, October 24 were 5.8% lower than in the same period in 2025. The sharpest drop came at the end of that week, when the storms arrived in quick succession. Daily sales fell 11.0% on Friday, October 23, and 14.2% on Saturday, October 24, as poor weather kept many customers at home instead of going out, the company said.

The following week was only slightly better. Sales in the week ending Saturday, October 31 were down 1.5% from a year earlier. NIQ said the week opened on a firmer note, with growth on four of its first five days, but that momentum faded by the weekend. Sales slipped 7.6% on Friday, October 30, and 1.8% on Saturday, October 31.

The weaker finish came despite Halloween, which fell on a Saturday in 2026 after landing on a Friday in 2025. NIQ said the limited uplift suggested more people may be choosing to celebrate Halloween at home rather than in bars and pubs. It also said wet weather in parts of Britain continued to weigh on customer traffic.

Taken together, the figures capped what NIQ described as a modest month for the on-premise drinks market, meaning sales in venues rather than retail stores. Sales were lower year over year in three of the four full weeks of October, showing that the decline was not limited to a single storm-hit weekend.

The pressure was most visible in spirits. NIQ said spirits sales dropped 20.1% in the week ending October 24 and 16.9% in the week ending October 31, even with Halloween in the mix. Wine also posted declines, falling 6.9% in the earlier week and 3.4% in the final week of the month.

Beer and cider performed better than spirits and wine, though their results were mixed. In the week ending October 24, beer sales were down 3.0% and cider sales were down 2.5%. In the final seven days of October, both categories recovered, with beer up 2.9% and cider up 3.9%.

Rachel Weller, NIQ’s commercial lead for the United Kingdom and Ireland, said the first major storms of the season were badly timed for hospitality businesses because they struck during what would normally have been a strong weekend for trading. She also said the Halloween effect was weaker than many venues would have wanted and described the spirits data as a concern for suppliers and bar operators.

At the same time, Weller said consumers still appear willing to eat and drink out when they have room in their budgets, a point that the industry will be watching closely as the holiday season approaches. Many venue owners and suppliers rely on November and December to lift year-end revenue after a slower fall.

The Daily Drinks Tracker is based on sales at managed licensed premises across Britain and is part of NIQ’s research business with CGA, which tracks category, supplier and brand sales performance in the hospitality market.