One of the UK’s largest hotel and restaurant groups, Whitbread, has said that group sales rose 12.3% in the 24 weeks to August 15th, with Costa once more leading the growth.
For the 24 weeks the group’s hotel chain Premier Inn grew total sales by 12.1%, setting the brand up for an expansion plan scheduled for its hotel and restaurants division that will include 4,000 rooms and ten joint site restaurants.
Meanwhile, the group’s coffee chain Costa saw total sales rise 20.8%. This included a 19.7% rise in system sales to £521.9 million with total franchise system sales up 18.0% to £207.3 million. This was biased towards the first quarter due to the colder weather in the first quarter and warmer weather in the second quarter in the UK, although international system sales also grew by 20.7% to £115.6 million.
Andy Harrison, chief executive of Whitbread commented: "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."
The group recently announced that it was looking to expand the “drive thru” division of Costa from the current 10 stores to between 70 and 80 branches in the next few years.
