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Pub company Marston's said its like-for-like sales had almost fully recovered to 2019 levels since lockdown restrictions started being eased in April.
Like-for-like sales for period between 12 April and 24 July, excluding Carvery, were at 90% of 2019 levels, the company said in a trading update.
'Since 17 May, overall sales have been encouraging, and better than our expectations,' Marston's said.
The stronger performance, it said, was driven by a combination of additional food covers, outdoor investment, warmer weather and the benefit of the delayed Euro 2020 tournament.
In the first week of trading since restrictions were entirely lifted on 19 July, the company had seen a 'modest' uplift in sales.
'Whilst this is clearly encouraging, it is too early to extrapolate any meaningful trends at this stage,' Marston's said.
'We have previously reported that we achieved break even from a cash flow and earnings perspective in April, and as a consequence of the easing of restrictions we generated positive earnings and cash flow in both May and June despite operating at around 70% capacity for those months.'