Whitbread scores first quarter sales boost driven by Premier Inn

The UK’s largest hotel and restaurant company Whitbread (LON:WTB) has posted a total 7.6 per cent gain in like-for-like sales across its business in the group’s Q1 results statement, edging the shares up by as much as 4.8 per cent in today’s session.

Rob Hull
shareprices.com - Tuesday, June 22, 2010

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Premier Inn sales have driven like-for-like sales for Whitbread up

Whitbread is by far the standout stock of the morning, posting strong gains against a broadly declining FTSE 100. The blue-chip index is currently down 1.5 per cent with the banking and commodity sectors hauling the index lower due to the upcoming Budget announcement and a loss of confidence in China’s currency flexibility respectively.

Whitbread, which is the parent company of Premier Inn and Costa coffee, reported trading results for the 13 weeks to 3 June today.

Premier Inn, backed by £29 a night offers, lead the sales growth with an increase of 10.5 per cent for like-for-like sales and 14.1 per cent for all sales. Costa coffee gained 8.5 per cent in like-for-like sales, while a new batch of outlets pushed the total sales for the coffee chain up by 26.9 per cent.

Investors reacted confidently to the report, upping the share price to 1550p from 1478p at one point during the morning, adding 4.87 per cent to the price of the stock. The price has gradually declined since, but still boasts a 2.77 per cent growth compared to a declining index as a whole.

Despite the strong results, the group said it expects the consumer climate to continue to be difficult.

Alan Parker, Chief Executive of Whitbread Plc, said: “In these times of austerity, our strategy of value for money hospitality brands in growing segments of the market has put us in a position of relative strength.

“We intend to further increase our market share by improving occupancy in our hotels and customer volumes in our restaurants and coffee shops.

“Our longer term expansion will continue at a pace appropriate to our competitive performance and growth in the market.

“We will remain vigilant on cost control and are currently planning to be broadly cash flow neutral this year. Whitbread has performed well in recession and is strongly placed for any recovery.”

Whitbread is just one of four groups treading in positive territory today. Intertek Group (LON:ITRK), Aggreko (LON:AGK) and British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) are the only other stocks in the green on the FTSE 100 today.

 

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