Beefeater gains boost Whitbread

Whitbread's Beefeater chain has put in a hearty performance for the group, leading sales growth across its hotels and restaurants.

In the first 50 weeks of Whitbread's financial year, like-for-like sales across Beefeater restaurants increased by 4%, outperforming the company's growing budget hotel chain, Travel Inn, which saw like-for-like sales rise by 3.6%.

Chief executive David Thomas said: "A year ago I challenged Beefeater to rediscover the form of which I know it is capable. Since then we have converted 24 sites to a new format with very encouraging results, and we have taken action to improve the quality of the estate as a whole."

"Figures indicate that Beefeater is on track to succeed, although there is still much to do," he added.

Thomas said that like-for-like sales at the company's Brewers Fayre and Brewsters pub-restaurants were disappointing, recording just a 1.5% increase.

Marriott, Whitbread's chain of four-star hotels, slowed its decline in like-for-like sales to 0.2%.

Across Whitbread as a whole, which includes the chain of David Lloyd health clubs, like-for-like sales increased by 2.4%.