Thu 5th Nov 2015 - Walkabout operator Intertain reports £1.2m sales uplift during Rugby World Cup despite England’s early exit Walkabout operator Intertain reports £1.2m sales uplift during Rugby World Cup despite England’s early exit: Walkabout operator Intertain has reported an uplift in sales of £1.2m during the Rugby World Cup – an increase of 33%, which was “above expectations” despite England’s early exit. The company said during the first two weeks of the group stages of the tournament, average sales were £1.3m a week – a rise of 38%. Its best performing site during the tournament was Cardiff with average sales of £118,000 a week followed by Temple in London with £110,000. The biggest three matches for takings were England versus Wales, Wales against South Africa and the final between Australia and New Zealand, each of which were worth £100,000 in sales to the company. Intertain chief executive John Leslie told Propel the performance was “above expectations” even though England failed to make it out of the group stages. He said: “We had a lot of pre-bookings for the major matches. We did expect England to do better than they did but overall we were ahead of our target and that didn’t account for England’s early exit. A lot of rugby supporters will go to a pub or bar to watch a game. They go for the atmosphere. I’m really pleased with how the whole team got behind the event and we have got a fantastic result out of it.” Leslie said there was also an uplift in sales on Halloween with it being on a Saturday and people staying on after watching the Rugby World Cup final. He added he was pleased with the performance of its three new sites this year in Brighton, Lichfield and Solihull while it will open its 25th Walkabout in total in December – at the Printworks in Manchester. Leslie said: “We set ourselves a target of getting two new sites this year but we have got four. We are looking for new sites but we need to make sure they are the right ones.”