Trading Statement

RNS Number : 1335R

Whitbread PLC

09 September 2014

 



WHITBREAD TRADING UPDATE

  

Strong sales growth continues with total sales up 12.8%.

Whitbread PLC, the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group, today reports its trading performance to 14^th August 2014.

Sales update (% change vs. prior year)

	Sales for the 11 weeks to 14th August 2014		Sales for the 24 weeks to 14th August 2014
	Like for like sales*¹	Total sales	Like for like sales*¹	Total sales
Premier Inn	9.2%	14.7%	9.3%	14.4%
Restaurants	1.7%	2.2%	3.1%	3.9%
Hotels and Restaurants	6.7%	10.5%	7.1%	10.7%
Costa	7.3%	17.8%	5.8%	16.7%
Total	6.8%	12.8%	6.8%	12.7%

Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread comments:

"We have delivered another strong quarter's trading, thanks to the hard work of all the Whitbread teams. This maintains our excellent growth record with a total sales increase of 12.8% and a like for like sales increase of 6.8% for the 11 weeks to 14^th August.

Premier Inn grew total sales*² by 14.7% and like for like sales by 9.2% in the quarter, benefiting from a buoyant hotel market especially in the UK regions. This was helped by the improving economy as well as special events, including the Farnborough Airshow and the Commonwealth Games. Premier Inn delivered a strong combination of 5.6% growth in UK rooms available, an 8.6% growth in total revpar and a rise in total occupancy of 3.1% pts to an all time high of 87.0%. Our restaurants also performed well, ahead of the market^*3, with like for like sales growth of 1.7%. Costa had a good summer with total sales growth of 17.8% and like for like UK sales growth of 7.3%, aided by weak comparatives from last year's warmer than average July. In early September, Costa launched Old Paradise Street Limited Roast, which is a new range of limited edition roast blends. This will provide coffee lovers with a wider choice of great tasting coffee, in addition to Costa's Mocha Italia, from the UK's favourite coffee shop*⁴.

Whitbread remains on track for another good year. Our strong brands continue to win market share, reinforced by ambitious organic network expansion. We plan to open around 4,500 new Premier Inn rooms and five joint site restaurants along with around 300 net new Costa stores this year. Our committed pipeline has grown to around 13,000 UK rooms."

Trading highlights for the 24 weeks:

Hotels and Restaurants:

·     Premier Inn has continued to win market share, growing total sales*²for the 24 weeks by 14.4%, total revpar by 8.7% and the number of rooms available by 5.5%. Total occupancy was 83.6%, up 3.7% pts on last year and total room nights sold increased by 10.4% to 7.7 million.

·     In London we grew total sales by 10.6% with a 9.3% increase in the number of rooms available. Our total revpar grew by 1.5% with occupancy at 88.7%. For the London hotel market*⁵ total revpar grew by 2.6%, and for the Midscale and Economy*⁵ sector it grew by 7.4%.

·     In the UK regions our total sales grew by 15.4%, with a 5.1% increase in the number of rooms available. Our total revpar grew by 10.1% with occupancy at 82.9%, up 4.2% pts. For the regional hotel market*⁵total revpar grew by 9.8%, and for the Midscale and Economy*⁵sector it grew by 13.7%. 

·     Restaurants delivered a good performance, benefiting from favourable weather comparatives, with like for like sales growth of 3.1% and like for like covers up 0.9%.

·     758 UK rooms have been opened in the year to date and for the full year we plan to open around 4,500 new UK rooms and five joint site restaurants.

Costa

·     Costa grew worldwide system sales by 15.3% to £602.4 million and, within this, franchise system sales grew by 14.2% to £236.7 million.

·     UK Retail system sales grew by 16.4% to £325.4 million, with equity stores delivering like for like sales growth of 5.8%. We have opened 76 net new UK stores in the year to date. 

·     Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express) delivered system sales of £151.5 million, up 19.1%. There are now 3,915 Costa Express units.

·     International system sales grew by 9.3% to £126.8 million, with growth of 4.3% in EMEI and 20.8% in Costa Asia.

·     We plan to open around 300 net new stores and 600 Costa Express units in the full year.

Group

The strong financial position of the Group remains unchanged. In the first quarter interim management statement we reported that capital expenditure for this financial year was expected to be over £400 million. Since then we have taken the opportunity, helped by our financial strength, to acquire three further freehold hotel sites in London (Clapham, Sutton and Westminster) and we now expect capital expenditure to be around £500 million.

Notes:

Site detail	27th February 2014	Opened	Closed	14th August 2014
Premier Inn UK	55,035	758	(1)	55,792
Premier Inn International	1,703	-	-	1,703
Total Premier Inn (rooms)	56,738	758	(1)	57,495
Restaurants (sites)	401	-	-	401
Costa Retail     Equity	1,015	51	(11)	1,055
Franchise	382	35	-	417
Costa Enterprises	358	16	(15)	359
Total Costa UK Stores (Retail + Enterprises)	1,755	102	(26)	1,831
Costa EMEI	764	37	(48)	753
Costa Asia	342	28	(13)	357
Total Costa (stores)	2,861	167	(87)	2,941
Costa Express Machines*6	3,515	400		3,915
Total Equity	1,141	52	(18)	1,175
Total JV	326	23	(13)	336
Total Franchise	1,394	92	(56)	1,430

*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 24 weeks to 14th August 2014, Premier Inn like for like sales would be 0.1% pts higher and total sales 0.1% pts higher.  Restaurants like for like sales would be 0.5% pts higher and total sales 0.5% pts higher.  Costa like for like sales would be 0.2% pts lower, total sales 0.1% pts higher and total system sales 0.1% pts higher.

*² Premier Inn total sales include UK & International; all other Premier Inn numbers included in this statement relate to UK & Ireland only unless otherwise stated.

*³ Coffer Peach Tracker outside of the M25

*⁴ Allegra Strategies Project Cafe 2013 report, published December 2013: Favourite Coffee Shop, based on a sample of 4,650 consumers from an independent coffee shop visitor panel

*⁵ Hotel market performance data collected by STR Global.

*⁶ Costa Express machines opened represent net machine openings.

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: 93063074 International participants dial [phone]

A recording of the conference call will be available until 22nd September 2014.  To listen, dial 08717 000 145 and enter the passcode 93063074, International calls dial [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.

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 PLCis the owner of the UK's favourite hotel chain, Premier Inn and the UK's favourite coffee shop, Costa, as well as restaurant brands, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Taybarns.

Whitbread PLC employs 43,000 people in over 2,000* outlets across the UK, with its well-loved brands making every day experiences special for over 22 million UK customers every month.

Whitbread has outlined growth milestones for 2016 and 2018. The 2018 milestones are to increase the number of Premier Inn UK rooms to around 75,000 and to achieve global system sales of around £2bn for Costa.

At Whitbread we are committed to being a force for good in the communities in which we operate. Our CR programme, 'Good Together' is focused on three pillars of Team & Communities, Customer Wellbeing and Energy & Environment.

In the year ended 27^th February 2014, Whitbread PLC reported a 13.0% increase in Group Revenue to £2,294 million and Underlying Profit before tax of £411.8 million up 16.5%.

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.

*excludes Costa Franchise stores and Costa Express

 

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