Football fans have given a £3.1bn boost to the British economy over the past four weeks as Euros fever sweeps the country.
At least £405m is expected to be spent in pubs and supermarkets for Sunday night’s final as England take on Spain in the highly anticipated tournament decider.
More than 17 million people are expected to watch the match in their local pub, bar or restaurant, with fans predicted to spend £70.5m on drinks and £54.3m on food.
Retailers are expected to receive a £280.1m boost, according to research by industry analyst GlobalData Retail for the website VoucherCodes. The majority of this will be spent in supermarkets on last-minute snacks and drinks for the match.
Tesco, for example, said it was expecting to sell more than one million pizzas and 180,000 packs of burgers between Friday and Sunday. The supermarket said it was preparing to sell around four million packs of beer and cider.
Kris Hamer, the director of insight at the British Retail Consortium, said: “After success against the Netherlands, we expect more people across England to tune into Sunday’s finals, meaning more spending on snacks and drinks, and potentially an uptick in TV sales as households try to watch the big game on even bigger screens.”
Landlords are preparing to pour an extra 10 million pints on the day of the match, with UKHospitality saying pubs and bars were likely to see a 50pc sales boost, the GlobalData figures suggest.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said: “Pubs will be packed to the rafters with fans cheering on the Three Lions and creating an unrivalled atmosphere, outside of being at the game in Berlin.”
Sunday’s game will be the Three Lions’ first major final on foreign soil.
Earlier this week, British Airways said it was putting on extra flights to Berlin, where the final is being held, after it experienced a 1,000pc increase in searches for the route on Wednesday night after England’s semi-final win.
The carrier has also moved to source larger planes to ferry football fans who are desperate to be in the German capital for the game.
Britain is expected to grind to a halt on the Monday after the game, which kicks off at 8pm on Sunday night, with employers warned that it is “unlikely to be business as usual”.
HR body The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development called for companies to be flexible with staff on the day after the game, who might be angling to work from home.
