Sales at Whitbread’s four-star Marriott hotels showed a healthy recovery in the 13 weeks to 3 June, but sales growth fell at the group’s pub-restaurants.
Marriott increased sales by 6%, compared with a decline of 0.2% during the financial year to 4 March.
But chief executive David Thomas explained that this quarter had benefited from comparison with the depressed London market a year ago.
Sales growth at the pub-restaurant division was just 0.2%, against 2.2% last year.
In this case, the results had suffered by comparison with a strong performance last year.
Pub-restaurant sales had also been affected by the temporary closure of sites for conversion to a new format.
Sales grew by 5.9% at the group’s Travel Inn budget hotel chain, by 5% at the David Lloyd Leisure clubs, and by 3.3% at its high-street restaurants, which include the Beefeater chain.
Overall, Whitbread boosted group sales by 3.5% over the quarter, while like-for-like sales increased by 3.4%.
by Angela Frewin
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