Whitbread PLC, the UK’s largest hotel and restaurant group, has reported its trading performance to 16 August 2012 is showing good sales growth with total sales up 14.8% in the second quarter with brands outperforming the tough economic climate, with like for like sales growth of 4.2% and continued expansion at Costa and Premier Inn.
Highlights from Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread:
“Premier Inn, the UK’s leading hotel chain, outperformed its competitive set in the second quarter, with total sales growth of 13.0% and total revpar growth of 1.9%, compared to a revpar decline of 4.3% in the Mid-scale and Economy segments.
“As expected, the Olympics provided a modest benefit, primarily through increased room rate, with occupancy slightly down on last year. The cap on our London prices, to maintain Premier Inn’s positioning for great value, constrained revpar growth.
“Restaurants continued to improve, benefitting from a wide range of management actions, driving an increase in like for like sales of 4.9%.
“Costa, the UK’s favourite coffee shop, had yet another strong quarter with like for like sales up 5.7% and total sales up 25.3%, as we continue to grow at pace in both the UK and selected overseas markets.”
Sales update (% change vs. prior year)
| Sales for the 11 weeks to 16th August 2012 | Sales for the 24 weeks to 16th August 2012 | |||
| Like for like sales*¹ | Total sales | Like for like sales*¹ | Total sales | |
| Premier Inn | 3.2% | 13.0% | 3.8% | 12.7% |
| Restaurants | 4.9% | 6.9% | 3.4% | 5.9% |
| Hotels and Restaurants | 3.8% | 10.7% | 3.6% | 10.1% |
| Costa | 5.7% | 25.3% | 7.1% | 25.3% |
| Total | 4.2% | 14.8% | 4.3% | 14.3% |
Trading highlights for the 24 weeks:
Hotels and Restaurants
· Premier Inn increased total room nights sold by 10.2% to 6.4 million.
· Premier Inn like for like revpar grew by 2.3% with occupancy up 0.4%pts to 79.4% and rate up by 1.8%.
· Like for like revpar grew by 5.3% in London and 1.8% in the regions.
· Estimated revpar benefit from the Olympic period was just over 1% pt on total revpar in the second quarter.
· Restaurants delivered total covers growth of 8.6% year to date. The switch of half-term from Q1 last year to Q2 this year benefitted like for like sales in Q2 this year by 1.4% pts.
· 1,565 net rooms were opened year to date and for the full year plan to open around 4,500 rooms and eight joint site restaurants.
Costa
· Costa grew total system sales by 22.9% to £432.0 million with total franchise system sales up 18.9% to £175.6 million.
· UK Retail system sales grew by 19.9% to £234.3 million with equity stores delivering like for like sales of 7.1%, with Q2 benefiting from relatively poor weather.
· Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express) delivered system sales of £101.8 million, up 33.0%. There are now 1,974 Costa Express units.
· opened 50 net new UK stores in the quarter, 39 in UK Retail and 11 in Costa Enterprises.
· Internationally, system sales grew by 20.7% to £95.8 million, with growth of 10.0% in EMEI and 93.8% in Costa Asia. Opened 12 net new stores in the quarter taking the total number of international stores to 858.
· first store in Singapore opened during the quarter with a further 12 stores in China taking the total number of stores in Asia to 199.
· plan to open 350 net new stores and 1,000 Costa Express units in the full year.