Whitbread well positioned for challenging year ahead

9th March 2009, 11:09am

Whitbread has reported its trading performance for the 50 weeks to 12 February, with sales increasing by a healthy 11.5%.

lan Parker, chief executive officer of Whitbread PLC commented on the results: "2008/09 has been a year of further good progress and market outperformance for Whitbread. We anticipate that profits for the year will be in line with market expectations. However, the sales trends we reported in December continued and in recent weeks Group like-for-like sales have been predominantly negative, particularly due to lower occupancy in Premier Inn. Since the start of 2009, it has been difficult to establish any clear trends."

He continued: "In this first year of the combined Hotels and Restaurants business we have delivered an increase in total sales of 9.1% and like for like sales growth of 5.4%.  By the year end we will have 54 new hotels and just over 40,000 rooms in the UK. Eleven of these new hotels are on joint sites with a Whitbread branded restaurant taking the total restaurant estate to 372. 

"Premier Inn's Business Account is attracting larger business clients with total accounts up 48% year on year and total sales via this channel up 26% year to date. Revpar growth for the 50 weeks to 12 February was 2.9% on a like for like basis. Within Restaurants like for like covers growth increased by 7.7% with spend per head falling 1.5%."

Meanwhile Costa continues to perform well with total sales up by 22.1%. Like for like sales increased by 2.0%. In the 50 weeks 204 new Costa outlets were opened in the UK and 151 across our international markets taking the total number of outlets to 1,297, across 25 markets.

The group's three key priorities for 2009/10 are to achieve cash flow neutrality, to reduce operating costs, and to outperform its competition.

"We believe that Whitbread's brands are well placed for the challenging year ahead", adds Parker.

Related Articles:

• 11 Apr 2012 - Whitbread appoints new managing director of Costa Coffee
• 28 Apr 2011 - Whitbread achieves strong revenue growth with sales up 6.6%
• 02 Sep 2009 - Whitbread achieves top grade for hospitality programme
• 20 Aug 2009 - Whitbread launches environment report
• 16 Jun 2009 - Whitbread sales in line with expectations
• 29 Apr 2009 - Whitbread remain positive after mixed performance
• 25 Mar 2009 - Whitbread launches Apprenticeship Programme
• 11 Mar 2009 - Whitbread embarks on skills for life training
• 09 Mar 2009 - Coffee tasting tongue insured for £10 million
• 08 Dec 2008 - Whitbread beating the credit crunch
• 10 Nov 2008 - Whitbread invests in Training Talent
• 15 Oct 2008 - Whitbread reports strong sales
• 22 Aug 2008 - Whitbread invests in Brewers Fayre Estate

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