A round-up of facts found in this week's news

The Restaurant Group's like-for-like sales slumped 3% in the first 18 weeks of this year, the chairman for the group has announced.

Drinks company Diageo has revealed that sales slumped by 7% in the three months ending 31 March.

Stock reductions in the drink giant's UK spirits and wine distributors were approximately one million cases lower than 31 December last year.

Meanwhile net sales grew by 16% in the nine months to the end of 31 March and by 11% in the three months to the end of March.

Sales of fine French wines have been hit as UK consumers cut back on spending, the latest figures from the Burgundy Wine Board (BIVB) has found.

However, it's not all doom and gloom as despite a drop of 11.7% in overall annual turnover, 2008 remained the second best year for Burgundy wine global exports, with an increase of more than 40 million Euros in comparison to 2006.

Once again, France was the strongest performing market for Burgundy wines with a majority of bottle sales occurring within the country.

A total of 194 million bottles were sold – although this is a drop of 5.1% in sales from 2007, it is still a stable turnover for the region.

Research has found that the percentage of women who binge drink has doubled since the 1990's.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation report found that 15% of women now binge drink on alcohol every week. However, the proportion of 16- to 24-year-old men binge-drinking decreased by 9% since 2000.

Researchers also found that whilst fewer children are drinking, those that do drink are drinking much more than they did in the past.

In the UK, women are less likely than men to drink, and women who do drink consume less than men. However the gender gap has generally narrowed over the last 15 to 20 years.

Meanwhile there has been a steady increase in alcohol consumption among middle age and older groups.

Other figures suggest that excessive weekly drinking has increased in Northern Ireland compared with Great Britain as a whole.