1st Quarter Results

RNS Number : 6325F

Whitbread PLC

19 June 2012

 

WHITBREAD INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT

  

WHITBREAD REPORTS DOUBLE DIGIT TOTAL SALES GROWTH FOR THE FIRST QUARTER

Whitbread PLC, the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group, today reports its trading performance as at 18^th June, for the 13 weeks to 31^st May 2012.

Sales update (% change vs. prior year)

	Sales for the 13 weeks to 31st May 2012
	Like for like sales*¹	Total sales
Premier Inn	4.3%	12.4%
Restaurants	2.1%	5.0%
Hotels and Restaurants	3.4%	9.4%
Costa	8.4%	25.3%
Total	4.5%	13.9%

Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread comments:

"Whitbread has begun the new financial year well, with a 13.9% growth in total sales, driven by a 4.5% growth in like for like sales and the continuing expansion of Premier Inn and Costa. 

Our consistent investment in product quality and customer experience has helped our strong brands to outperform their competitors. In the first quarter Premier Inn grew total sales by 12.4% with revpar^*2 growing by 2.9%, boosted by a strong April, and outperforming the midscale and economy sector*³ where revpar fell by 2.6%.  Costa has continued its excellent momentum delivering a 25.3% growth in total sales, with an 8.4% increase in UK like for like sales and strong international growth.  We are pleased to see that the sharper focus in our Restaurants business has helped maintain its improved performance.

Our plans for profitable growth are well established, supported by our strong balance sheet, and we plan to open 4,200 Premier Inn rooms, eight joint site restaurants and 350 new Costa stores this financial year, creating an additional 3,500 UK jobs.  We expect comparative quarterly trading to continue to be variable. April benefitted substantially from a weak comparative due to the extended Royal Wedding holiday in 2011.  For the second quarter we face tougher comparatives against a strong result last year, together with the uncertain impact of this summer's major sporting events."

Trading highlights for the 13 weeks:

Hotels and Restaurants

·     Premier Inn grew total sales by 12.4% with total room nights sold increasing by 11.0% to 3.3 million.

·     Premier Inn like for like revpar*² grew by 3.0% with occupancy up 1.3%pts to 76.2% and rate up by 1.3%.

·     Like for like revpar*² grew by 7.3% in London and 2.2% in the regions.

·     Restaurants delivered total covers growth of 7.4%.

·     1,109 rooms and one joint site restaurant were opened in the quarter and for the full year we plan to have opened around 4,200 rooms and eight joint site restaurants.

Costa

·     Costa grew total system sales by 24.7% to £226.7 million with total franchise system sales up 22.5% to £58.8 million.

·     UK Retail system sales grew by 21.5% to £123.9 million with equity stores delivering like for like sales of 8.4%. 

·     Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express) delivered systems sales of £50.6 million, up 29.9%.  There are now 1,714 Costa Express units.

·     We opened 35 net new UK stores in the quarter, 29 in UK Retail and 6 in Costa Enterprises.  

·     Internationally, system sales grew by 25.8% to £52.2 million, with growth of 13.2% in EMEI and 131.1% in Costa Asia.  We opened 35 net new stores including 22 in China where we now have 186 stores.

·     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	31st May 2012
Premier Inn UK & Ireland		47,429	1,109		48,538
Premier Inn Int'l		1,296			1,296
Total Premier Inn (rooms)		48,725	1,109		49,834
Restaurants (sites)		387	1	1	389
Costa Retail	Equity Franchise	823 268	22 13	(6)	839 281
Costa Enterprises		301	6		307
Costa EMEI		647	30	(17)	660
Costa Asia		164	22		186
Total Costa (Stores)		2,203	93	(23)	2,273
Costa Express Machines		1,192	538	(16)	1,714
Total Equity		930	35	(7)	958
Total JV		178	23		201
Total Franchise		1,095	35	(16)	1,114

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

Post IFRIC 13 for the 13 weeks to 31^st May 2012 Premier Inn like for like sales would be 0.6% higher and total sales 0.7% higher. Restaurant like for like sales would be 0.5% lower and total sales 0.6% lower.  Costa like for like sales would be 0.6% higher, total sales 0.6% higher and total system sales 0.5% higher.

*² UK & 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 c107,000 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 0808 238 0673 and enter Conference ID: 89762982.

A recording of the conference call will be available until the 2nd July 2012. To listen, dial 0800 953 1533 and enter the passcode 89762982#.  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.

Whitbread has 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.

 

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