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Whitbread reports rise in budget hotel sales in second quarter while its coffee chain struggled through UK heatwave
Strong demand for Premier Inn hotel rooms in London boosted sales for Whitbread in the second quarter while growth slowed at its Costa Coffee chain amid Britain's heatwave.
Sales at the budget hotel chain in the capital were up 16.1% in the 11 weeks to 15 August, with sales up 10.4% in the regions.
It helped drive a 10.8% rise in total sales at Whitbread, the hotels, restaurants and coffee shop group. Like-for-like sales at the group – which strip out the impact of selling space added in the last 12 months – rose 2.1%. That was slower than the previous quarter as growth in like-for-like sales at Costa Coffee slowed to 3% from 8% in the first, with customer appetite limited by the prolonged spell of hot weather.
Total sales at Costa Coffee rose 16.5% in the second quarter.
"Our performance [at Costa] was biased towards the first quarter due to the colder weather in the first quarter and warmer weather in the second quarter," Whitbread said.
Over the first half of the year overall total group sales were up 12.4% while like-for-likes rose 2.6%.
The chief executive, Andy Harrison, said: "We are on track with our annual plan and our ambitious five-year growth milestones. Combined with our emphasis on returns, this growth should continue to create substantial shareholder value."
Whitbread has 54,213 Premier Inn rooms and 2,659 Costa Coffee shops. It said it was on track to add around 4,000 hotel rooms and 300 new coffee shops this year.
