- Whitbread also operates the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurant chains.
- The company’s turnover rose 1% to £739m in the 13 weeks ending May 30.
Whitbread posted marginal sales growth in the first quarter following strong performance in Germany and trading improvement at its British Premier Inn hotels.
The hospitality company, which also operates restaurant chains Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, revealed its turnover rose 1 per cent to £739m in the 13 weeks to May 30.
Accommodation sales rose 15 per cent in Germany, which the FTSE 100 group attributed to increased room numbers and “the growing maturity” of its estate.
Marginal growth: Premier Inn owner Whitbread revealed its turnover rose 1 per cent to £739m in the 13 weeks ending 30 May.
Whitbread operates 59 Premier Inns across Germany, many of them in city centers such as Berlin, Dusseldorf, Munich and Nuremberg.
By comparison, the company reported that revenue was flat in the UK due to weak levels of last-minute weekend bookings, especially in London, and “softer trading” at some branded restaurants.
Its accommodation sales in the capital fell 0.6 per cent to £120m.
However, this was offset by a rise in regional sales of £2.1m to £374.1m, despite average room occupancy and rates being slightly lower than the previous year.
Whitbread said total revenue fell slightly year-on-year for the first seven weeks of the period before recovering thanks to strong demand for midweek leisure and business stays at its Premier Inns.
Following the result, Whitbread chief executive Dominic Paul said the company was “confident about its prospects for the full year” amid positive levels of forward bookings.
He added: “This reflects more encouraging commercial performance in the UK, our strong commercial program and greater cost efficiency, as well as good progress in Germany.”
As part of its “accelerated growth plan”, Whitbread plans to add another 3,500 rooms in the United Kingdom and “optimize” its food and drink offering by closing 126 restaurants and converting another 112 into hotels.
A protest organized by the Unite union is planned today in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, against Whitbread’s plans to close these restaurants and cut around 1,500 jobs.
Unite claims the company has refused to consult with them or answer “any of their basic questions” about redundancy measures.
Mark Crouch, analyst at eToro, commented: ‘The hospitality sector is Whitbread’s bread and butter and, despite economic challenges, the brand clearly carries weight with customers at a time when consumer spending is falling. .
“With Premier Inn accounting for more than 70 per cent of Whitbread’s revenue, it is no surprise that the company is putting more eggs into its Premier Inn basket.”
white bread stock They rose 3.9 per cent to £30.32 on Tuesday morning, making them the biggest risers on the FTSE 100 index, although the company’s shares remain significantly below their pre-pandemic levels.