Whitbread is an exemplary case of a company heavily hit by the pandemic bouncing back stronger and producing higher profits than before COVID.
Whitbread revenue for the 2023FY was £2,625m – a 27% increase on 2020.
Higher revenue generation drove surging profits as statutory profit after tax rose to £279m vs £218m in 2020.
The group continues to invest in new sites and is ramping up the number of rooms available to customers. Whitbread has a pipeline of 7,400 new rooms in the UK and 7,000 in Germany.
Although the vast majority of Whitbread’s profit was generated in the UK, the group saw strength in their German unit as revenue jumped to £118m in FY23. FY22 revenue was £35m.
Whitbread shares were 6% higher at the time of writing.
“There’s plenty of cheer in Whitbread’s results today. Revenue growth of over 50% has seen Whitbread surpass pre-pandemic levels at both the top and bottom line,” said Derren Nathan, Head of Equity Research at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“Its strong brand in UK midscale hotels sees it consistently outperform the wider market and hoover up market share, while still maintaining price discipline.
“The Food & Beverage performance was a drag on last year’s numbers but recent initiatives seem to have sewn the seeds of a recovery. Despite inflationary pressures across the cost base and growth in the estate, margins in the UK hotels division were well ahead of last year and only slightly below those seen in 2020. Whitbread has got off to a strong start in the current year and its confidence is reflected in the increase in pay outs to shareholders.”
Whitbread will increase its final dividend by 43% to 49.8p.