Trading Statement Q4

RNS Number : 6381Y

Whitbread PLC

26 February 2013

 

WHITBREAD TRADING UPDATE

Double digit sales growth

On track to deliver full year results in line with expectations

  

Whitbread PLC, the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group, today reports its trading performance to 14^th February 2013.

Sales update (% change vs. prior year)

	Sales for the 11 weeks to 14th February 2013		Sales for the 50 weeks to    14th February 2013
	Like for like sales*¹	Total sales	Like for like sales*¹	Total sales
Premier Inn	2.9%	14.1%	3.2%	12.9%
Restaurants	0.2%	2.7%	2.3%	4.7%
Hotels and Restaurants	1.7%	9.1%	2.9%	9.7%
Costa	5.5%	32.2%	6.6%	26.9%
Total	2.7%	16.9%	3.7%	14.8%

Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread comments:

"For the financial year to date, Whitbread has again delivered outstanding organic growth in a flat consumer market, growing total sales by 14.8%. Our strong brands continue to win market share, supported by our highest ever guest satisfaction scores and rapid expansion of our network. Good like for like sales growth of 3.7% demonstrates the consumer appeal of our brands and also enables us to reinvest in our people and facilities and to grow our estate. We remain on track to deliver full year results in line with expectations.

During the fourth quarter, we maintained our strong momentum with total sales growth of 16.9%, although the headline like for like sales growth of 2.7% was slightly suppressed by adverse weather conditions in January, particularly affecting the restaurants business. Premier Inn continued to outperform its competitive set^*2 and delivered total sales growth of 14.1% together with like for like sales growth of 2.9%. Our restaurant business continued to improve, outperforming the Coffer Peach^*3 industry benchmark, with like for like sales growth of 0.2%. Costa continued to excel with total sales up 32.2% and UK like for like equity store sales up 5.5%. 

 
We see no change to market conditions, although we expect a more competitive environment. We shall continue to deliver good organic growth and are on track to achieve our 2016 growth milestones."

Trading highlights for the 50 weeks:

Hotels and Restaurants *⁴

·     Premier Inn increased total room nights sold by 11.2% to 13.0 million.

·     Year to date, Premier Inn like for like revpar^*5 grew by 1.6% with occupancy up 1.1% pts to 77.4% and rate^*5 up by 0.1%. For the fourth quarter, like for like revpar^*5 grew by 0.8% with occupancy up 4.2% pts and rate^*5 down 5.5%.  

·     Over the fourth quarter, Premier Inn total revpar^*5 grew by 0.7% compared with a decline of 0.8% for the Mid-scale and Economy sector^*2 and the total market ^*2 down 0.6%.

·     In the UK Regions, over the fourth quarter, Premier Inn total revpar^*5 was down 0.3%. This compared with a decline of 0.9% for the Mid-scale and Economy sector^*2 and growth of 0.8% for the total market^*2.  

·     In the London market, for the fourth quarter, Premier Inn total revpar^*5 was up by 2.2%. This compared with a decline of 5.0% for the Mid-scale and Economy sector^*2 and the total market^*2 down 3.6%. During the year, Premier Inn has increased room capacity by 22% in London*⁶.

·     Restaurants delivered total covers growth of 5.5% year to date, of which like for like growth was 3.0%.

·     Restaurants like for like sales growth of 0.2%, in the fourth quarter, was predominantly driven by strong trading over the Christmas period offset by adverse weather conditions in January. 

·     We are on track to open 4,300 new rooms and ten joint site restaurants in the UK this year and around 4,000 new rooms and a similar number of restaurants in the next financial year.

Costa

·     Costa continued to perform strongly growing total system sales in the 50 weeks by 22.4% to £962.0 million, within which franchise sales were up 18.5% to £383.3 million.

·     UK Retail system sales grew by 20.2% to £525.2 million, with equity stores delivering like for like sales growth of 6.6%.

·     Costa Enterprises grew system sales to £225.6 million, up 29.7%.

·     Overall the market in EMEI was robust with system sales growing by 11.7% to £165.5 million. However, Poland remains a difficult market with like for like sales now down year to date.

·     Costa Asia system sales grew by 71.7% to £45.7 million. We continue to invest in infrastructure to support our rollout strategy.

·     We are on track to open 320 net new stores worldwide and around 1,300 Costa Express units in the full year. Next year we plan to open a broadly similar number of net new stores worldwide and over 500 Costa Express units.

Group

·     The strong financial position of the group remains unchanged.

·     Today we have issued an update on meat supply. Please see our corporate website for details.

Notes:

Site detail	1st March 2012	Opened	Closed/ transferred	14th February  2013
Premier Inn UK	47,429	4,137	(30)	51,536
Premier Inn Int'l	1,296			1,296
Total Premier Inn (rooms)	48,725	4,137	(30)	52,832
Restaurants (sites)	387	9	1	397
Costa UK     Equity	823	105	(10)	918
Franchise	268	55		323
Total Costa UK (stores)	1,091	160	(10)	1,241
Costa Enterprises	301	36	(3)	334
Costa EMEI	647	113	(69)	691
Costa Asia	164	90	(4)	250
Total Costa (stores)	2,203	399	(86)	2,516
Costa Express Machines	1,192	1,444	(70)	2,566
Total Equity	930	134	(11)	1,053
Total JV	178	87	(19)	246
Total Franchise	1,095	178	(56)	1,217

*¹ Like for like sales stated Pre IFRIC 13 adjustment for Premier Inn - UK and Ireland, Costa and Restaurants - UK.

Post IFRIC 13 for the 50 weeks to 14^th February 2013 Premier Inn like for like sales would be 0.2% higher and total sales 0.2% higher.  Restaurant like for like sales would be 0.1% lower and total sales 0.2% lower.  Costa like for like sales would be 1.1% lower, total sales 1.0% lower and total system sales 0.6% lower.

^*2 STR Global

*³ Coffer Peach Business Tracker - December 2012 & January 2013

*⁴ UK & Ireland only

*⁵ UK & Ireland only on a post IFRIC basis.

*⁶ London: within the M25 including Heathrow

Conference call for analysts and investors

Andy Harrison and Nicholas Cadbury will be available for a conference call at 8.00am today.  To participate, dial 0800 694 0257 and enter Conference ID: 99436794. For international participants dial [phone].

 A recording of the conference call will be available until the 11th March 2013.  To listen, dial 08717 000 145 and enter the passcode 99436794.  International [phone].

 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.

We will announce our full year results on the 30^th April 2013.

For more information please contact:

Investor Relations

Nicholas Cadbury, 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 21 million customers every month in over 2,000 outlets across the UK.

Whitbread has outlined five-year growth milestones (to 2015/16) to increase the number of Premier Inn UK rooms to at least 65,000 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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