Whitbread has reported like-for-like sales at Costa up 6% in the 50 weeks to 12 February and 6.9% in the fourth quarter.
Its Restaurants division like-for-likes was up 2.2% for the year to date and 0.6% for Q4. The company said like-for-like covers for the quarter were down 0.4%.
Costa grew total system sales in the 50 weeks by 16.2% to £1,340.5m, (17.5% at constant currency). Within this, franchise sales were up 15.5% to £516.9m (17.9% at constant currency). UK retail system sales were up 17.2% to £730.3m, with equity stores delivering like-for-like sales growth of 6% powered by like for like store transaction growth of 4.6%. Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express) grew system sales to £331.9m, up 19.4%.
International system sales at Costa grew by 10.9% to £281.2m (16.4% at constant currency), with growth of 6.5% (13.0% at constant currency) in EMEI and 20.3% (23.5% at constant currency) in Costa Asia.
The company said this year Costa would open around 230 net new stores, including c.180 in the UK and c.50 internationally, and add around 800 net Costa Express machines, taking the total to c.4,300. Next year it plans to open c.250 net new Costa stores worldwide and install around 800 Costa Express machines.
Whitbread chief executive Andy Harrison, said: “We have continued our strong trading momentum in the final quarter, with total sales growth of 14.3% and like for like sales growth of 5.8%. Premier Inn and Costa continue to grow rapidly, winning UK market share, with Premier Inn also benefitting from the recovery in the UK regional hotel market. With this strong performance we expect to deliver full year results towards the top end of current expectations.
“In the final quarter Premier Inn grew its total sales by 16.5%, with like for like sales growth of 8.6%. Total revpar grew by 8.9% through an increase in occupancy of 3.0% pts to 71.1% and an increase in ARR of 4.3%. For the year to date we have combined record occupancy of 81.3%, up 3.3% pts on last year, with a 6.0% increase in rooms available. Our Restaurants grew total sales in the quarter by 1.6%, with good Christmas trading off-set by a softer January. Costa had an excellent fourth quarter with total sales growth of 19.8% and UK like for like sales*1 growth of 6.9%. Our Christmas campaign was well received by customers, with like for like store transactions up 4.4% in the final quarter.
“We are investing to improve our customer propositions even further and in our ambitious organic network expansion. This year we shall open close to 4,500 new UK rooms*4 and c.230 net new Costa stores worldwide, with a further c.5,500 new UK rooms*4 and c.250 net new Costa stores worldwide planned for the next financial year. We expect our capital investment for this year to be c.£575 million, growing to c.£700 million next year as we open more hotel rooms and invest in our freehold pipeline, particularly in London. This organic network growth and our strong return on capital should continue to create substantial shareholder value.”
