Scotland’s newly lowered drink-drive limit led to pain at the beer pumps for major brewer and pub operator Greene King.
The Belhaven owner posted a 2% increase in like-for-like sales in the two weeks over Christmas and New Year across its UK estate.
However, the company said that trading north of the border had been hit over the last six weeks due to a combination of poor weather and the introduction of a more stringent drink-drive limit on December 5.
The law, unique in the UK to Scotland, has lowered the legal limit from 80mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood to just 50mg.
In practical terms that means the average man would be over the limit by drinking a single pint before driving, while the average female is risking her licence at around half of that consumption level.
The group said sales for the six weeks to January 11 were flat compared with the period the year before when they had performed strongly.
Excluding Scotland, they were up 0.6%.
“Sales were encouraging in our retail business over the important two weeks covering Christmas and the New Year, despite a very tough comparative from last year and softer trading in Scotland, following the introduction of tougher drink-driving laws,” chief executive Rooney Anand said.
“Outside of those weeks, trading was more volatile, with the weeks before Christmas slightly down on the previous year and soft trading since the New Year.”
Mr Anand pointed to a tough consumer environment, with its latest tracker survey showing an 8% year-on-year fall in household leisure spending in November.
The group highlighted prosecco as the big winner over the two-week Christmas and New Year period when sales spiked 78%.
Meanwhile, it saw a record 780,000 Christmas bookings, up 3.5% on a like-for-like basis, achieving record retail sales of £3.4 million on Christmas Day.