North’s restaurant and bar scene outstrips London on growth

Restaurant and bar scenes across Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds are growing at rates more than double those of London, according to new data.

Northern cities dominated a new league table of hospitality growth by taking up six of the top eight places.

Independent operators were found to be leading the surge.

The analysis comes from Northern Restaurant & Bar, a trade show opening in Manchester next week (March 20-21), alongside hospitality insight firm CGA.

According to the research, the ‘M62 corridor’ spanning Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds has become a hotspot for new restaurants and bars, with the number of city centre outlets in those locations leaping by more than 20% in the last five years.

This figure is double that seen in London, which recorded a 10.4% uptick.

Liverpool topped the chart with 25.2% growth, followed by Manchester in close second on 24.9%.

Leeds came in third place with 20.5%, Southampton fourth (20.5%), York fifth (19.5%), Cardiff sixth (17%), Newcastle seventh (15.7%) and Bradford eighth (15.1%). London was in 14th place.

Northern Restaurant & Bar CEO Thom Hetherington said: “We’re delighted but not surprised by the data, we have seen the changes first hand – new restaurants and bars are opening almost every day.

“Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds are building top class food and drink scenes, and that’s great news for diners.”

He continued: “Despite this being a challenging period for hospitality businesses, the growth is being largely driven by ambitious regional independents, and we’re proud that NRB can help to inspire and inform them.”

Jamie Campbell, retail business unit director at CGA, commented: “Of course London is a much bigger restaurant and bar scene in absolute terms, but percentages don’t lie, the change in the cities in the North is more pronounced and has a proportionally greater impact on diners, whether residents or tourists.

“Moreover we are working on additional data which shows that growth in the region is indeed being driven by independents, with the featured Northern cities showing an increase in independent outlets at over twice the national rate.”

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