Orchid reports sales up 9.8% over Christmas: Like-for-like sales at Orchid Group grew 9.8% over the Christmas and New Year period with food sales up 11% across the business. Simon Dodd, commercial & people director, said: “Across the company we had a record-breaking Christmas with very strong sales. There was a definite upturn in consumer confidence this year, with Christmas bookings up over 6% on last year. For us, it was all about getting in early. Festive planning started in earnest in July with dedicated manager road-shows, training sessions and sales ambassadors’ workshops. We offered customers early booking incentives and as a result they were up by 10%. To excite managers, we ran a Christmas sales incentive offering the best performing 20 a trip to Miami. Well-defined concepts selling quality food plus passionate, loyal managers and team members who always go the extra mile set Orchid apart from the rest.” Orchid’s digital communications played a significant part too, with targeted mailings sent out to over one million customers. The big winner for Orchid this year was its 25 Pizza Kitchen Bars, up by +21% on last year. Dodd said: “PKB is our genre-busting concept. It’s informal, friendly and great for all ages so perfect for Christmas celebrations – whether work do’s or family parties.” Top performing individual pubs were The Alexandra in Harrogate, a Pizza Kitchen Bar with Christmas Week sales of £43.700. The Mons in Bootle – one of Orchid’s Carvery pubs – was close behind posting a record breaking £43,300 for the same period. However, the accolade for Orchid’s highest ever week of sales went to the Moby Dick in Romford (Carvery) which took £50,100 in the run-up to Christmas (week of the 8th-14th Dec) smashing any previous company records. Across the festive period, Orchid’s 47 Carveries saw a +15% increase in festive sales from last year. 350,000 diners were served during December with 3,600 turkeys consumed. This comes on the back of a strong year for Orchid carveries, which is currently growing by 7% on a like-for-like basis. Elsewhere in the business, Do Drop Inns saw sales growth of +7%, Independent Locals were up by 7.0%, Free House Dining +3% and Dragons +5.5%. Invested pubs showed their worth too with recently refurbished pubs seeing like-for-like sales growth of 30.5% in week 52. Overall, Orchid’s invested estate is up by over 38%.