Whitbread reveals Q3 sales growth of 11.4%

13-Dec-2011 - Last updated on 12-Apr-2024 at 10:38 GMT

Whitbread announced Q3 sales growth across the group with Premier Inn reporting a total sales increase of 8.3%

Hotel and restaurant operator Whitbread saw total sales rise 11.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2011 with its budget hotel brand Premier Inn and coffee chain Costa responsible for the growth.

In the latest company trading update released to the stock market this morning, the group revealed total sales for Premier Inn were up 8.3 per cent for the 13 weeks to 1 December 2011 while the coffee chain Costa grew revenues by over a quarter at 25.2 per cent.

Costa continued to be the strongest part of the Whitbread portfolio with total system sales up 23.9 per cent to £602m in the 39 weeks to 1 December 2011.

In their statement Whitbread said they remained on target to open 300 new Costa stores and 4,000 new hotel rooms despite the economic downturn.

Virtually disappeared

"As we said at the half year, trading month by month continues to be variable in a challenging consumer environment. Within the total hotel market, industry data shows that RevPAR growth in London and the provinces has virtually disappeared, with the London market showing broadly flat RevPAR and the provinces a marginal decline over the last six weeks," said Andy Harrison, Whitbread chief executive.

Room rate for the Whitbread hotels in the UK and Ireland was up by 2.1 per cent in the 39 weeks to 1 December 2011, while occupancy increased to 80.3 per cent. These figures meant like for like RevPAR for Whitbread hotels increased by 3.2 per cent.

Last month BigHospitality reported that a survey conducted by TRI Hospitality Consulting suggested London hotels had suffered the first RevPAR decline of the year in October.

Coffee Union

Whitbread also announced that the rebranding of the Coffee Union units they own was continuing to proceed with 498 Coffee Union stores remaining.