29th Aug 2007 07:01
Whitbread PLC29 August 2007 WHITBREAD TRADING STATEMENT 29th August 2007 Whitbread PLC today reports a further improvement in performance for the 24weeks ended 16 August 2007 Sales for 24 weeks to 16th August 2007. % change vs prior year Like for like sales Total salesPremier Inn 11.0% 14.5%Restaurants 2.0% 3.5%Costa 7.2% 23.5% Continuing Whitbread* at week 24 6.6% 11.3% Continuing Whitbread at Week 13 5.6% 9.8% Alan Parker, Chief Executive, Whitbread PLC comments: "I am pleased to report that the Group has improved upon the performance of the13 weeks to 31st May 2007 with all businesses reporting an increase in like forlike and total sales growth. Total sales have grown 11.3% and like for likesales have grown by 6.6%. Premier Inn continues to perform strongly with like for like occupancy at 82.1%, 1.3% pts better than last year. The UK expansion is in line with our plans with40% of the additional rooms being built on Whitbread owned sites. We have alsoprovided more focus to our international expansion plans with the appointmentsof a Group Development Director, Reas Kondraschow and Aly Shariff, the ManagingDirector of our recently announced Premier Inn joint venture in India. The growth in Restaurants continues to pick up. As a result of the ongoingimprovement in operating performance and the year on year reduction in discountsthere has been an improvement in margins achieved with no price rises. With theremodelling of Beefeater now complete, our investment programme is primarilyfocused on the Brewers Fayre estate where we have remodelled 41 in the year todate. In addition 4 new Restaurants on joint sites have been added to theestate. Costa's total sales increased substantially year on year driven by new storeopenings and the strong like for like sales performance. We have opened 76 UKstores (net of closures 63) in the year to date of which 27 were franchised. InAugust we opened our 600th UK store in Wimbledon. Costa's overseas expansioncontinues with 52 new stores (net of closures 42) opening, bringing the total to217. On 3rd August 2007 we announced that we had completed the sale of David LloydLeisure to Versailles Bidco Limited, a company owned by London and RegionalHoldings Limited and Bank of Scotland for £925m. As previously stated we areinitially using the proceeds to pay off debt. It remains our intention to increase the leverage of the Group in line with theframework outlined with our preliminary results in April. Our plans to issuebonds secured on the hotel and restaurant assets are well advanced. However,given the current conditions in the debt markets we are considering with ouradvisers the most appropriate time to proceed. A further update will be givenwith the half-year results in October. In the meantime, as part of our plan to increase the Group's leverage, we willtoday start an on market buyback programme. This buyback will be line with ourcurrent shareholder authority, which allows us to buy back up to 10% of ourissued share capital, and will be funded from existing facilities. At today'sshare price 10% of our issued share capital equates to just over £300m. The positive trend in trading over the last year has continued. This reflectsthe strong brand propositions in our refocused group, investment in ourbusinesses and the concentration on operating performance. The Board continuesto be confident of the good growth prospects for the Group." * Continuing Whitbread Continuing Whitbread comprises Premier Inn, the retained Restaurant estate andCosta but excludes David Lloyd Leisure, the disposed restaurant sites, TGIFriday's and any supply chain sales to third parties. End Whitbread will announce its interim results on 16th October 2007 for the 26weeks to 30th August 2007. Conference call for analysts and investors Alan Parker and Christopher Rogers will be hosting a conference call foranalysts and investors at 8.30am today. To participate, dial +44 (0)20 71380837. A recording of the conference call will be available for seven days. To listen,dial +44 (0)20 7806 1970 and enter the passcode 4827053#. This service will beactive approximately one hour after the conference call has finished. For more information please contact: Investor Relations: Christopher Rogers, Whitbread PLC +44 (0) 207 806 5491 Press Contacts: Andrew Grant, Tulchan +44 (0) 207 353 4200 Wendy Watherston, Tulchan Editor Notes: 1. Reas Kondraschow was previously Executive Vice President of InternationalDevelopment at Wyndham Hotel Group, based in the USA, where he oversaw thegrowth of Wyndham Hotels, Days Inn, Ramada and Howard Johnson. Reas has alsoheld a number of senior positions with Marriott International, Holiday InnWorldwide and Burger King. 2. Aly Shariff is a key member of the Premier Inn Executive Team withstrategic involvement in the international development plans. He was the HRDirector for Premier Inn and has held a number of senior positions withinWhitbread. Prior to joining Whitbread he held a senior position with SingaporeAirlines Ltd. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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