Whitbread reports like-for-like sales up 7.9%

Whitbread has reported that like-for-like sales for the first 24 weeks to August 2010 are up 7.9%, with total sales up 14%.

Its strongest performance was at Premier Inn, where total sales were up 14.5% and like-for-like sales grew 10.7%, while revenue per available room was up 9.8%. The firm said this reflected market growth and its improvement in market share.

Occupancy at the budget hotel chain was at 79.2%, up 9.5 percentage points.

Whitbread said its business account sales had increased by over 20%. It added that in the year to date it had opened nine new hotels with a total of 795 rooms. There are plans to add another 1,905 rooms during the remainder of 2010/11.

Meanwhile, like-for-like sales were up 3.9% at its restaurants and 8.3% at Costa Coffee. The coffee chain also recorded that total sales were up 28%, driven by new products and the growth of its Costa Coffee Club, membership of which now stands at over three million.

Whitbread has opened a total of 98 new Costa stores to date, 44 of which are franchises.

The hotel and restaurant group said it will continue its strong performance through the rest of the year, though it added that it would face tougher comparatives in the second half.

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By James Stagg

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