Premier Inn growth drives Whitbread sales up 7.6%
Whitbread has seen sales grow 7.6% in the first quarter of its financial year, driven by 9.2% growth at Premier Inn.
The group has reported like for like sales growth of 2.9%, with Premier Inn again leading the way with like for likes up 4.7%.
Total revenue per available room was up 3.1%, which like for like revpar stood at 2.9%.
Like for like sales in its restaurants, which include Beefeater, Brewers Fayre and Table Table, were up at a more modest 0.7%, with sales up 2.1%.
Chief Executive Alison Brittain said that Premier Inn had benefitted from a resilient hotel market and the opening of 9,00 rooms in the past two years.
She added: "Our digital development team continued to innovate for our customers and we launched our personalised business to business booking platform that helped to maintain our direct bookings at 94% of sales.
"We were pleased that total UK occupancy was up compared to the first quarter last year at 79.2%, at the same time as we increased our capacity."
In the 13 weeks to 1 June, Whitbread also completed the sale and leaseback of its 247 room hotel in Shoreditch, raising £51m.
Brittain said that the group remained on track to open 4,200 hotel room this year.
Whitbread grows again in 2016/17 but warns of tougher outlook >>
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