Costa Coffee Gives Whitbread Sales A Boost

A rise in sales at the Costa Coffee chain have helped boost figures for parent company Whitbread (LSE: WTB.L - news) .

Like-for-like sales increased by 2.6% for the 13 weeks to 2 June.

The robust performance by Costa helped lift like-for-like sales across the Whitbread group, which also owns Premier Inn hotels, by 1.8%.

Whitbread also said like-for-like sales at Premier Inn were up 2.1% over the same period.

Alison Brittain, Whitbread's chief executive, said: "Costa has started the year well and Premier Inn continues to win share, albeit in a weaker-than-expected hotel market.

"With (Other OTC: WWTH - news) the benefit of our cost-efficiency programme we remain confident of making good progress for the full year."

The group, which bought a 49% stake in London-based health food chain Pure for £6.8m in May, is planning to open 230 to 250 Costa Coffee shops worldwide.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) also aims to create another 4,500 new hotel rooms by the end of 2017.

Whitbread revealed revenue per available room at Premier Inn, a key measure at its hotel arm, was down by 1.2%.

The company said this reflected difficult market conditions and a major expansion programme, which included adding 3,600 new rooms in the final quarter of 2015.

In the last financial year, revenues at the FTSE 100 giant rose 12% to £2.9bn, while pre-tax profits increased 5% to £488m.