Whitbread achieves 2.6% like-for-like sales growth

Whitbread has announced like-for-like sales growth of 2.6% across its hotels and restaurants business for the 24 weeks to 15 August.

Strongest performance was achieved by its 1,656-strong Costa coffee chain with an increase in like-for-like sales of 5.78%, while Premier Inn, which has 54,213 bedrooms, achieved sales growth of 2.9%. Total revenue per available room (revpar) increased by 2.3% and total room nights sold grew by 10.7% to 7.2 million.

Like-for-like sales across Whitbread's largely regional restaurants - Beefeater Grill, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Taybarns - declined by 0.1%, which Andy Harrison, chief executive of Whitbread, attributes to the inability of being able to benefit from the stronger London economy.

Harrison said that the strong performance of Costa was biased towards the first quarter "due to weather comparatives".

"We are on track with our annual plan and our ambitious five year growth milestones," he added. "Combined with our emphasis on returns, this growth should continue to create substantial shareholder value."

Whitbread's expansion continues apace this year with 11 hotels involving 1,270 room and three joint site restaurants opening during the first 24 week. The company is on target to open around 4,000 rooms, ten joint site restaurants, 300 Costa stores and 850 Costa Express units during the full year.

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