Whitbread PLC today reports its trading performance to 26 November 2015 for the year ending 3 March 2016, with Alison Brittain, Chief Executive of Whitbread, commenting:
“I am delighted to have joined Whitbread as CEO. This is a great business with a strong leadership team and 48,500 team members who are passionate about delivering outstanding customer service.
In Costa and Premier Inn we have built the nation’s most loved coffee shop and hotel brands and we have laid out clear and ambitious growth milestones. I am looking forward to building on the foundations of the business by investing in our people, our network and our infrastructure to enhance our customer offer, further strengthen our brands and deliver profitable growth.
Whitbread has had another good quarter and, for the year to date, we have delivered total sales growth of 11.1% and like for like sales growth of 3.6%. Our brands continue to win market share and we are on track to deliver full year results in line with market expectations.”
Trading highlights
“During the quarter total sales grew by 10.4% and like for like sales grew by 3.5%.
Premier Inn’s total sales grew by 10.8%, with a combination of 4.7% like for like sales growth and a 7.4% increase in rooms available with good total sales growth in both London, up 14.8%, and in the regions, up 9.7%. Total revpar was up 3.6% with occupancy remaining high at 84.5%. Restaurants like for like sales growth was 1.7%.
Costa delivered total sales growth of 13.8% and like for like sales growth of 2.5% in a quarter that included a soft November.
Whitbread is on track to deliver its growth milestones
“This year we plan to open around 5,500 new Premier Inn rooms and around 200 net new Costa stores worldwide. Our committed UK hotel pipeline has grown to 14,588 rooms.
Sales update (% change vs. prior year)
| Sales for the 13 weeks to 26 November2015 | Sales for the 39 weeks to 26 November2015 | |||
| Like for like sales*¹ | Totalsales | Like for like sales*¹ | Totalsales | |
| PremierInn | 4.7% | 10.8% | 4.9% | 11.9% |
| Restaurants | 1.7% | 3.0% | 0.6% | 2.0% |
| Hotels and Restaurants | 3.8% | 8.5% | 3.5% | 8.8% |
| Costa | 2.5% | 13.8% | 3.7% | 15.3% |
| Total | 3.5% | 10.4% | 3.6% | 11.1% |
Hotels and Restaurants
- Premier Inn has continued to win UK market share, growing total sales for the 39 weeks by 11.9%, like for like sales by 4.9%, total revpar by 4.2% and total room nights sold by 7.4% to 13.6 million. Total occupancy remained high at 84.0%, in line with last year, whilst the number of rooms available increased by 7.8%.
- In the quarter Premier Inn grew total sales by 10.8% and total revpar by 3.6%. Like for like sales growth of 4.7% was ahead of the like for like revpar growth of 3.1%, benefitting from our accelerated hotel extension programme.
- In London we grew total sales by 14.8% in the quarter, with a 13.6% increase in rooms available, total revpar growth of 2.1% and total occupancy up 0.6% pts to 89.2%. Total London market revpar grew by 5.4% and the Midscale and Economy sector grew total revpar by 4.5%.
- In the regions we grew total sales by 9.7% in the quarter, with a 3.3% increase in total revpar, a 6.5% increase in rooms available with total occupancy at 83.8%. Total regional market revpar grew by 5.7% and the Midscale and Economy sector grew total revpar by 6.9%.
- Restaurants delivered total sales growth of 2.0% and like for like sales growth of 0.6% for the 39 weeks, ahead of our competitor set.
1,818 UK rooms were opened in the year to date and, for the full year, we plan to open around 5,500 UK rooms including c.1,500 extensions.
Costa
- Costa grew its worldwide total sales by 15.3% and like for like UK sales by 3.7% for the 39 weeks.
- Costa grew worldwide system sales by 14.1% to £1,165 million (14.3% at constant currency). Within this, franchise system sales grew by 11.3% to £443 million.
- UK Retail system sales, year to date, grew by 14.9% to £635 million with equity stores growing like for like sales by 3.7%. We opened 69 net new UK stores, including the opening of our 2,000th UK store.
- Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express UK & International) delivered system sales of £294 million, up 14.0%. Costa Express maintained its success with the installation of a further 687 Costa Express machines taking the total to 4,979.
- International system sales grew by 11.9% to £236 million (13.0% at constant currency). 37 net new stores were opened in the period with 25 in EMEI and 12 in Asia.
In the year Costa plans to open around 200 net new stores worldwide and install over 800 net Costa Express machines.