28th Apr 2015 06:36
LONDON (Alliance News) - Whitbread PLC Tuesday said its pretax profit rose in its recently-ended financial year as sales in both its Premier Inn and Costa Coffee chains continued to rise, and it has started looking for a new chief executive as Andy Harrison told the board he will retire by the end of the current financial year.
Separately, FTSE 250-listed home goods company Dunelm Group PLC said Harrison will become Chairman in July 7 when Geoff Cooper retires. Harrison is already a non-executive director on the company's board.
Hotel and coffee-shop chain operator Whitbread reported pretax profit for the year ended February 26 of GBP463.8 million, up from GBP347 million the year before, as revenue increased 13.7% to GBP2.6 billion from GBP2.3 billion. Sales at Premier Inn grew 15.3% while Costa Coffee revenue rose 17.9%.
The company will pay a total dividend of 82.2 pence, up 19.4% from 68.8p the year before.
Whitbread said it wants to increase the 59,138 Premier Inn rooms it currently has in the UK to around 85,000 by 2020, while aiming to boost Costa's system sales from GBP1.4 billion to around GBP2.5 billion by 2020. Reaching this goal would create around 15,000 new jobs in the UK over the next five years, the company said.
"Trading in the new financial year has begun on plan, with good momentum for Premier Inn and Costa, and our restaurants business is trading slightly ahead of a subdued market outside the M25," Chief Executive Andy Harrison said in a statement.
Whitbread Chairman Richard Baker is leading the hunt for the company's next CEO, and will consider both external and internal candidates to fill the role.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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