Whitbread Share Price (WTB)

WTB - Whitbread Investor Summary

The hospitality company of the UK, Whitbread PLC own and operate some of the biggest names with regards to budget eateries and hotels. At present they have Premier Inn, Brewers Fayre, Costa Coffee and Beefeater as just a few of their top names and operate over 1500 outlets throughout the UK. They serve a total of over 8 million customers each month in their various hotels and restaurants – a figure which gives them a market capitalisation of around £2 billion. Whitbread PLC is a FTSE100 company and aims to move up the list by expanding and opening another 1000 outlets around the UK by 2010.

Further expansion projects are on the horizon with plans to spread into a number of promising locations worldwide. Costa Coffee is already an established name in India and the Middle and Far East and Whitbread PLC hope to capitalise on this over the next few years. Their Premier Inn brand is the fastest growing budget hotel chain in the UK and its success has helped the company to increase both their revenue and their profits. The year of February 2007-2008 saw a group revenue of nearly £1.2 billion which was an 11% increase on the previous year. Similarly, their pre-tax profit was reported as £210 million which gave them a 26% increase on the year before. This growth has meant that Whitbread PLC share prices have remained steady for a number of years, even with the poor economic climate currently being felt.