The UK’s service sector finally ended a miserable three-month losing streak last month and pub giant Marston’s has reported “promising” Christmas bookings after a jump in sales.
The influential S&P Global/CIPS UK services PMI survey showed a reading of 50.9 in November, up from 49.5 in October, across Britain’s service industry.
The figure was also ahead of the 50.5 that economists had expected, according to a consensus figure supplied by Pantheon Macroeconomics and any score above 50 indicates that the sector is growing.
Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said: “UK service providers moved back into expansion mode during November as stabilising demand conditions helped to lift business activity from its recent malaise.
“Although only marginal, the upturn in service sector output was the fastest since July and slightly stronger than the earlier ‘flash’ estimate for November.”
But service companies are still seeing significant cost rises, largely because of increases in staff wages.
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Meanwhile, pub giant Marston’s has reported “promising” Christmas bookings after a jump in sales, but also slumped to a loss for the past year.
The company, which owns 1,414 pubs across the UK, told shareholders on Tuesday morning that bookings for the key Christmas period have been “tracking ahead of last year”.
William Rucker, chairman of the Wolverhampton-based firm, said consumer demand has remained “resilient” despite the challenging economic backdrop.
Marston’s said positive trading momentum has continued in recent months, with like-for-like sales up 7.4% since September 30.
It came as the group recorded a 9.1% rise in revenues to £872.3 million over the year to September 30.
However, the company fell to a £20.7 million pre-tax loss for the year after it was impacted by interest rate swap movements and charges linked to weaker property valuations, compared with a £163.4 million profit a year earlier.
Dr John Glen, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), said that the overall picture was one of the service industry breaking out of the malaise that has dogged pubs and restaurants in recent months.
“Amongst the general malaise in customer confidence impacting on demand, there was the biggest rise in new orders since July and export orders since August.
“A softening in the headline rate of inflation and improved raw material prices set the scene for some clients to commit to new work, while the remainder stayed mostly cautious until there were stronger improvements in the UK economy.”
He added: “There was also an end to the job losses recorded by service businesses every month since September, so this could be another signal that this is the start of a more sustainable revival for 2024.”
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