Whitbread to grow at Costa and Premier

The group’s five-year targets emerged alongside results showing a 20 per cent rise in underlying profits to £287.1m in the year to March 3.

Whitbread ended the financial year with 44,295 rooms in the Premier Inn business and 1,871 Costa stores.

Under plans revealed by chief executive Andy Harrison, it hopes to increase Premier’s UK capacity by 50 per cent to at least 65,000 rooms. This will include 4,000 extra rooms in the current financial year.

For Costa, it expects continuing rapid growth in the UK store network and “even faster international growth” as the group looks for sales of around £1.3bn and 3,500 stores worldwide within the next five years. Mr Harrison said: “We see a significant opportunity for Whitbread, building on our good returns on capital and the availability of quality sites.”

Premier’s drive for more of the leisure market, backed by an advertising campaign featuring comedian Lenny Henry, resulted in an occupancy rate of 76.2 per cent in the financial year, up 6.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis.

Premier Inn revenues rose 11 per cent to £698.6m, while the restaurants brands Beefeater, Brewers Fayre and Table Table – part of Whitbread’s hotels and restaurants division – grew two per cent to £474.1m. Costa’s sales jumped 28 per cent to £659m after another strong year of growth, with like-for-like sales up 7.8 per cent in the UK, the company added.

Whitbread recently launched its push into the self-serve coffee market with the acquisition of Coffee Nation for £59.5m.

Despite the growth plans, Whitbread shares fell 78p to close at 1658.9p after the company said recent like-for-like sales remained “firmly positive” but below the level of the final quarter of the 2010/11 financial year.

It added: “Despite a more challenging consumer economy, we are confident that we will continue to outperform.”

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