Costa owner Whitbread (LON:WTB) saw shares fall over 5 percent on Thursday, after the company disclosed another set of disappointing financial results.
Sales at Costa grew by just 0.5 percent in the last 11 weeks, compared to growth of 3.7 percent in the first 40 weeks of the financial year, with Whitbread citing the unusually warm weather bringing lower footfall into stores. Total worldwide total sales fared better, growing by 14.2 percent.
Its Premier Inn arm also showed slower growth than expected, growing 2.2 percent this quarter, down from 4.9 percent in the first 40 weeks of the year. However its occupancy rates remained high, at 81.1 percent with total room nights sold increased by 7.4 percent to 17.0 million.
Alison Brittain, Whitbread’s CEO, commented on the results:
“Whitbread has had another good trading period, delivering year to date total sales growth of 10.4% and like for like sales growth of 3.2%. We expect to report full year profit in line with expectations.
“In the year ahead, as we build towards our growth milestones, we will continue to invest in improving our customer propositions, our digital and IT capabilities and in our winning teams to ensure we maintain our market leading positions. This will deliver long term profitable growth and sustainable returns for our shareholders.”
Whitbread shares are currently down 5.88 percent at 3811.00 (1251GMT).
