WHITBREAD INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT
WHITBREAD REPORTS DOUBLE DIGIT TOTAL SALES GROWTH FOR THE FIRST QUARTER
Whitbread PLC, the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group, today reports its trading performance as at 18th June, for the 13 weeks to 31st May 2012.
Sales update (% change vs. prior year)
|
|
Sales for the 13 weeks to 31st May 2012 |
|
|
|
Like for like sales*¹ |
Total sales |
|
Premier Inn |
4.3% |
12.4% |
|
Restaurants |
2.1% |
5.0% |
|
Hotels and Restaurants |
3.4% |
9.4% |
|
Costa |
8.4% |
25.3% |
|
Total |
4.5% |
13.9% |
Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread comments:
"Whitbread has begun the new financial year well, with a 13.9% growth in total sales, driven by a 4.5% growth in like for like sales and the continuing expansion of Premier Inn and Costa.
Our consistent investment in product quality and customer experience has helped our strong brands to outperform their competitors. In the first quarter Premier Inn grew total sales by 12.4% with revpar*2 growing by 2.9%, boosted by a strong April, and outperforming the midscale and economy sector*3 where revpar fell by 2.6%. Costa has continued its excellent momentum delivering a 25.3% growth in total sales, with an 8.4% increase in UK like for like sales and strong international growth. We are pleased to see that the sharper focus in our Restaurants business has helped maintain its improved performance.
Our plans for profitable growth are well established, supported by our strong balance sheet, and we plan to open 4,200 Premier Inn rooms, eight joint site restaurants and 350 new Costa stores this financial year, creating an additional 3,500 UK jobs. We expect comparative quarterly trading to continue to be variable. April benefitted substantially from a weak comparative due to the extended Royal Wedding holiday in 2011. For the second quarter we face tougher comparatives against a strong result last year, together with the uncertain impact of this summer's major sporting events."
Trading highlights for the 13 weeks:
Hotels and Restaurants
· Premier Inn grew total sales by 12.4% with total room nights sold increasing by 11.0% to 3.3 million.
· Premier Inn like for like revpar grew by 3.0% with occupancy up 1.3%pts to 76.2% and rate up by 1.3%.
· Like for like revpar grew by 7.3% in London and 2.2% in the regions.
· Restaurants delivered total covers growth of 7.4%.
· 1,109 rooms and one joint site restaurant were opened in the quarter and for the full year we plan to have opened around 4,200 rooms and eight joint site restaurants.
Costa
· Costa grew total system sales by 24.7% to £226.7 million with total franchise system sales up 22.5% to £58.8 million.
· UK Retail system sales grew by 21.5% to £123.9 million with equity stores delivering like for like sales of 8.4%.
· Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express) delivered systems sales of £50.6 million, up 29.9%. There are now 1,714 Costa Express units.
· We opened 35 net new UK stores in the quarter, 29 in UK Retail and 6 in Costa Enterprises.
· Internationally, system sales grew by 25.8% to £52.2 million, with growth of 13.2% in EMEI and 131.1% in Costa Asia. We opened 35 net new stores including 22 in China where we now have 186 stores.
· We plan to open 350 net new stores and 1,000 Costa Express units in the full year.
Group
The strong financial position of the group remains unchanged.
