Trading Statement

RNS Number : 1415C

Whitbread PLC

02 March 2011

 



2nd March 2011

WHITBREAD TRADING UPDATE

CONTINUES TO DELIVER STRONG REVENUE GROWTH

TOTAL SALES INCREASE BY 13.7%

Whitbread PLC, the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group, today reports its trading performance for the 50 weeks to 17th February 2011.

Sales update (% change vs. prior year)

	Sales for the 11 weeks to 17th February 2011		Sales for the 50 weeks to 17th February 2011
	Like for like sales*¹	Total sales	Like for like sales*¹	Total sales
Premier Inn	5.1%	11.6%	8.8%	13.2%
Restaurants	3.1%	3.9%	3.3%	3.6%
Hotels and Restaurants	4.2%	8.1%	6.5%	9.1%
Costa*²	3.0%	23.9%	7.9%	28.5%
Total	3.9%	12.4%	6.7%	13.7%

*¹ Premier Inn: UK and Ireland only. Costa and Restaurants: UK only.

*² Pre IFRIC 13 adjustment.  For 50 weeks post the adjustment like for like sales would be 1.1% lower and total sales 1.1% lower.

Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread comments:

"Whitbread continues to perform well with total sales in the last 11 weeks up 12.4%. Our like for like sales are good especially in a challenging economic environment and against tougher comparatives.

We anticipate that the outturn for the year will be in line with market expectations, demonstrating strong profit growth. Whilst it is premature to judge the trajectory of the UK consumer economy in 2011 we shall continue to invest in growing our strong brands."

Trading highlights for the 50 weeks:

Hotels and Restaurants

·     Total room nights sold in the 50 weeks have risen by 13.9% to 11.0 million.

·     Premier Inn like for like occupancy for the year to week 50 was 76.3% (Full year 2009/10: 70.2%).

·     Premier Inn like for like revpar growth of 8.5%.

·     Restaurants have delivered year to date total covers growth of 5.6% and have recovered well from the difficult trading in the run up to Christmas.

·     During the year we will have opened 22 hotels, 2,138 rooms and 8 restaurants.  We remain on target to have 55,000 rooms in the UK by the end of 2013/14.

Costa

·     Costa has continued its excellent performance with total system sales up 31.1% to £630 million and total franchise system sales up 34.3% to £268 million.

·     Like for like sales in the last 11 weeks are up 3.0% against a strong final quarter last year. Year to date like for like transactions have grown 8.6%.

·     By the end of 2010/11 we will have opened over 300 stores taking the total number of stores at the full year to c.1,200 in the UK and c.650 internationally.

·     Costa remains on target to grow the business to at least 3,000 stores by the end 2014/15.

·     Costa has also today announced the acquisition of Coffee Nation for £59.5m. (Please see separate announcement)

Group

·     Ian Cheshire has been appointed to the Board as a Non Executive Director in place of Philip Clarke who is stepping down after over 5 years of invaluable service. Ian will take over from Philip as Chairman of the Remuneration Committee.

·     Our balance sheet is strong and remains underpinned by a significant freehold asset base. 

Notes:

Outlet numbers

As at 17th February 2011
Hotels and Restaurants	Hotels	Rooms	Costa	Stores
Standalone hotels - UK	228	22,184	UK company-owned	725
Standalone hotels - Int.	5	1,076	UK franchise	482
Joint site hotels	346	20,071	International company-owned²	83
Franchise and associates¹	14	731	International JV³	118
Total hotels	593	44,062	International franchise	452
Total joint site restaurants	346		-	-
Total standalone restaurants	32		-	-
Total restaurants	378		Total Costa	1,860

1 Terminated Roadchef franchise arrangement of 633 rooms in September 2010 
2 Includes Shanghai (60 stores) which is a subsidiary with a 51% interest
3 Sold 17 stores to our franchise partner during the year.

Whitbread will be reporting Full Year Results on 28^th April 2011. 

Conference call for analysts and investors

Andy Harrison and Christopher Rogers will be available for a conference call at 8.00am today.  To participate, dial [phone] and enter conference ID: 457 547 62.

A recording of the conference call will be available until the 16th March 2011.  To listen, dial 0800 953 1533 and enter the passcode 45754762#. This service will be active approximately two hours after the conference call has finished.

Please dial into the call 10 minutes before to ensure you don't miss the start. You can also pre register at: http://emea.directeventreg.com/registration/event/45754762

There is a slide presentation on the Coffee Nation acquisition available to view at http://www.whitbread.co.uk/investorpresentations

For more information please contact:

Investor Relations

Christopher Rogers, Whitbread PLC        [phone]

Press Contacts

Anna Glover, Whitbread PLC                    [phone]

David Allchurch, Tulchan                         [phone]

For photographs and video please visit our media library on www.whitbreadimages.co.uk

Notes to Editors

Whitbread PLC is the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group operating market-leading businesses in budget hotels, restaurants and coffee shops.  Its well-loved brands are Premier Inn, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table, Taybarns and Costa Coffee.

Whitbread PLC employs over 40,000 people globally and serves 10 million customers every month in over 2,000 outlets across the UK.

In the six months ended 2 September 2010, Whitbread PLC reported a 14.5% increase in Group Revenue to £805.4 million and Underlying Profit before tax of £151.8 million up 28.4%.

Whitbread PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100. It is also a member of the FTSE4Good Index.

 

END

 

 

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