Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) enjoyed a resilient performance across the spring period, boosted by its Premier Inn chains.
The group, which also own Costa Coffee, saw its Premier Inn sales grow by more than double across the period, as it benefited from a “resilient hotel market”.
Premier Inn’s like-for-sales rose 4.7pc in the 13 weeks to June 1, compared to 2.1pc like-for-like growth in the same period last year, driven in part by the addition of 9,000 rooms.
Nevertheless, the company did note a slowdown in demand in cities such as London and Manchester, as tourism began to slow in light of recent terrorist attacks. They did however, note that some recovery had already been witnessed with regards to bookings.
Conversely, its Costa brand continued to face difficulties amid falling consumer economic confidence.
Overall, its like-for-like sales rising 1.1 percent compared to 2.6 percent recorded growth last year. In addition total sales were up 8.7 percent.
In spite of subdued growth from the high-street coffee chain, the figures proved in line with analysts expectations.
“We have had a good start to the year, with first quarter sales growth of 7.6pc, in line with our expectations,” said chief executive Alison Brittain.
“Premier Inn continued to win overall market share with strong sales growth of 9.2pc as we benefited from a resilient hotel market and the contribution from the 9,000 rooms we opened over the last two years, which are maturing well.”
Investors welcomed the results for Whitbread, which ultimately marked an encouraging start to the year.
“Whitbread’s Premier Inn bounce is impressive but the continued slowdown at Costa, at least in terms of like-for-like sales, may be a worry to some,” said Mark Brumby, analyst at Langton Capital.
“[Costa] will not be performing strongly in the current hot weather [in the UK] and retail footfall is on the slide.”
As a result, shares in Whitbread jumped 3.82 percent during Wednesday trading, as of 12.10PM (GMT).
