LONDON, UK – Whitbread PLC, the UK’s largest hotel and restaurant group, yesterday reported its trading performance for the 13 weeks to 29th May 2014.
Sales update (% change vs. prior year) – click to enlarge.
Trading highlights for the 13 weeks:
Hotels and Restaurants
- Premier Inn has continued to win market share, growing total sales*2 for the 13 weeks by 14.2%, total revpar by 8.8% and total room nights sold by 11.2% to four million. Total occupancy was 80.7%, up 4.2% pts on last year and the number of rooms available increased by 5.5%.
- In a buoyant London market total sales grew by 10.4% in the quarter with a 7.6% increase in the number of rooms available. Total revpar grew by 3.6% with occupancy remaining high at 86.1%. For the London hotel market*4 total revpar grew by 3.6% in the quarter, and for the Midscale and Economy*4 sector it grew by 8.7%.
- In the UK regions total sales grew by 15.3% in the quarter, with a 5.2% increase in the number of rooms available. Total revpar was up 9.9% with occupancy at 80.0%, up 4.9% pts. For the regional hotel market*4 total revpar grew by 9.2%, and by 13.9% for the Midscale and Economy*4 sector.
- Restaurants delivered a good performance in the quarter, as well as benefitting from favourable weather comparatives, with like for like sales growth of 4.4% and like for like covers up 2.6%.
- 208 UK rooms were opened in the quarter and for the full year the company plans to open around 4,500 UK rooms and five joint site restaurants.
Costa
- Costa grew worldwide system sales by 14.6% to £323.0 million and within this franchise system sales grew by 13.1% to £126.5 million.
- UK Retail system sales grew by 15.2% to £174.4 million, with equity stores delivering like for like sales growth of 4.5%. 36 net new UK stores were opened in the quarter.
- Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express) delivered system sales of £79.5 million, up 18.5%. There are now 3,729 Costa Express units.
- International system sales grew by 9.1% to £69.1 million, with growth of 4.2% in EMEI and 24.0% in Costa Asia.
- It is planned 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. At the full year results in April 2014 the Group expected capital expenditure of £360 million for 2014/15. Since then they have acquired two additional freehold properties in London and now anticipate capital expenditure to be over £400 million. The Group continues to see opportunities for further attractive freehold acquisitions.
*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 13 weeks to 29th May 2014 Premier Inn like for like sales would be 0.1% higher and total sales 0.1% higher. Restaurant like for like sales would be 0.5% higher and total sales 0.5% higher. Costa like for like sales would be 0.1% lower, total sales 0.1% higher and total system sales the same.
*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 Hotel market performance data collected by STR Global.
*5 Costa Express machines opened represent net machine openings.
Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread comments:
“Whitbread has started the year well, with total sales growth for the first quarter of 12.7% and strong like for like sales growth of 6.9%, as anticipated at our Annual Results announcement on 29th April.
Premier Inn and Costa have continued on their rapid growth trajectory, underpinned by strong customer demand. Premier Inn grew total sales*2 by 14.2%, with like for like sales growth of 9.5%, benefitting from a buoyant hotel market driven by continuing growth in London and clearer signs of economic recovery in the UK regions.
Premier Inn grew total revpar by 8.8%, with 3.6% growth in London and 9.9% growth in the UK regions. Total occupancy rose by 4.2% pts to 80.7%. Our Restaurants business also performed well with like for like sales growth of 4.4%, outperforming the industry benchmark*3, which was boosted by soft comparatives due to cold weather in Q1 last year.
Costa once again extended its excellent track record, with total sales growth of 15.9% and like for like sales growth of 4.5%, against demanding comparatives from last year.
Whitbread is well positioned for another good year with our strong brands continuing to win market share, reinforced by ambitious organic network expansion. We currently have 43 new Premier Inn hotels under construction in the UK and expect to open around 4,500 new rooms this year, together with five joint site restaurants. Costa will open around 300 net new stores this year.”
Source: Whitbread
