Trading Statement

RNS Number : 6115L

Whitbread PLC

06 September 2012

 

WHITBREAD TRADING UPDATE

  

Whitbread delivers 14.8% sales growth.

Whitbread PLC, the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group, today reports its trading performance to 16^th August 2012.

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%

Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread comments:

"Whitbread has continued to deliver good sales growth with total sales up 14.8% in our second quarter.  Our brands have outperformed in a tough economic climate, with like for like sales growth of 4.2% and we have continued our network expansion at Costa and Premier Inn. 

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*² growth of 1.9%, compared to a revpar decline of 4.3% in the Mid-scale and Economy*³ 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.

The economic challenges and variable trading month by month continue. We remain on track to deliver our ambitious growth programme, with our strong brands winning market share."

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^*2 grew by 2.3% with occupancy up 0.4%pts to 79.4% and rate up by 1.8%.

·     Like for like revpar*² grew by 5.3% in London and 1.8% in the regions.

·     We estimate the 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-termfrom 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 we 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.

·     We 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.  We opened 12 net new stores in the quarter taking the total number of international stores to 858.

·     Our first store in Singapore was opened during the quarter with a further 12 stores in China taking the total number of stores in Asia to 199.

·     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.

Notes:

Site detail		1st March 2012	Opened	Closed/ transferred	16th August 2012
Premier Inn UK & Ireland		47,429	1,595	(30)	48,994
Premier Inn Int'l		1,296			1,296
Total Premier Inn (rooms)		48,725	1,595	(30)	50,290
Restaurants (sites)		387	1	1	389
Costa Retail	Equity Franchise	823 268	41 33	(6)	858 301
Costa Enterprises		301	18	(1)	318
Costa EMEI		647	38	(26)	659
Costa Asia		164	35		199
Total Costa (Stores)		2,203	165	(33)	2,335
Costa Express Machines		1,192	804	(22)	1,974
Total Equity		930	52	(4)	978
Total JV		178	35	(15)	198
Total Franchise		1,095	78	(14)	1,159

*¹ Like for like sales stated for Premier Inn - UK and Ireland, Costa and Restaurants - UK and in all cases they are Pre IFRIC 13.

Post IFRIC 13 for the 24 weeks to 16^th August 2012 Premier Inn like for like sales would be 0.3% higher and total sales 0.4% higher.  Restaurant like for like sales would be 0.4% lower and total sales 0.5% lower.  Costa like for like sales would be 0.6% higher, total sales 0.7% higher and total system sales 0.5% higher.

*² UK and Ireland only on a post IFRIC basis.

*³ The UK Performance Monitor is a weekly publication produced by STR Global which reports a Midscale and Economy market survey comprising c109,000 UK rooms including c48,000 Premier Inn rooms.

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 0800 694 0257 and enter Conference ID: 23514849.

A recording of the conference call will be available until the 19th September 2012.  To listen, dial 08717 000 145 and enter the passcode 23514849.  This service will be active approximately two hours after the conference call has finished.

Please dial into the call ten minutes before to ensure you don't miss the start.

For more information please contact:

Investor Relations

Christopher Rogers, Whitbread PLC          [phone]

Joanne Russell, 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.

Whitbread PLC employs over 40,000 people globally and serves over 20 million customers every month in over 2,000 outlets across the UK.

In 2011 Whitbread outlined five-year growth milestones (to 2015/16) to increase the number of Premier Inn UK rooms to at least 65,000, add 80-100 new Restaurants and to nearly double the size of Costa with global system sales of £1.3bn and 3,500 stores worldwide.

In the year ended 1 March 2012, Whitbread PLC reported a 11.2% increase in Group Revenue to £1,778.0 million and Underlying Profit before tax of £320.1 million up 11.3%.

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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