Operation of hotels, restaurants and coffee shops,Whitbread Group Plc is a UK based hospitality company, managing several popular brands, including Premier Inn, Table Table, Brewers Fayre, Taybarns, Beefeater and Costa Coffee. The company�s headquarters are based in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. The company was founded as a brewery by Samuel Whitbread and Thomas Shewell in 1799 but, after a long history of brewing, the company decided in 2001 to sell all its breweries and brewing interests to Interbrew. Today the group employs over 40,000 people and serves 10 million customers every month in over 2,000 outlets across the UK.

,Final Ex-Dividend Date MAY-2011

Whitbread PLC is the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group operating market-leading businesses in budget hotels, restaurants and coffee shops. Its well-loved brands are Premier Inn, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table, Taybarns and Costa.


Whitbread PLC employs over 40,000 people globally and serves over 11 million customers every month in over 2,000 outlets across the UK.


Whitbread has outlined five-year growth milestones (to 2015/16) to increase the number of Premier Inn UK rooms by nearly 50% to at least 65,000, add 80-100 new Restaurants and to nearly double the size of Costa with global system sales of £1.3bn and 3,500 stores worldwide.

IN AT 1399

Over 1700p

over 1800p

Over 1900p
full year dividend up 15.2% to 51.25p (2010/11: 44.50p)

Well done Baylis - don't you just love the 'boring' ones! :-)

Over 2000p

over 2100p

Trading Statement

Trading highlights for the 24 weeks:

Hotels and Restaurants

· Premier Inn increased total room nights sold by 10.2% to 6.4 million.
· Premier Inn like for like revpar*2 grew by 2.3% with occupancy up 0.4%pts to 79.4% and rate up by 1.8%.
· Like for like revpar*2 grew by 5.3% in London and 1.8% in the regions.
· We estimate the revpar benefit from the Olympic period was just over 1% pt on total revpar in the second quarter.
· Restaurants delivered total covers growth of 8.6% year to date. The switch of half-termfrom Q1 last year to Q2 this year benefitted like for like sales in Q2 this year by 1.4% pts.
· 1,565 net rooms were opened year to date and for the full year we plan to open around 4,500 rooms and eight joint site restaurants.

Costa

· Costa grew total system sales by 22.9% to £432.0 million with total franchise system sales up 18.9% to £175.6 million.
· UK Retail system sales grew by 19.9% to £234.3 million with equity stores delivering like for like sales of 7.1%, with Q2 benefiting from relatively poor weather.
· Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express) delivered system sales of £101.8 million, up 33.0%. There are now 1,974 Costa Express units.
· We opened 50 net new UK stores in the quarter, 39 in UK Retail and 11 in Costa Enterprises.
· Internationally, system sales grew by 20.7% to £95.8 million, with growth of 10.0% in EMEI and 93.8% in Costa Asia. We opened 12 net new stores in the quarter taking the total number of international stores to 858.
· Our first store in Singapore was opened during the quarter with a further 12 stores in China taking the total number of stores in Asia to 199.
· We plan to open 350 net new stores and 1,000 Costa Express units in the full year.


Group

The strong financial position of the group remains unchanged.

Tuesday 23 October
Whitbread (WTB) is expected to report a solid set of interim results. Sales data was pre-released with the pre-close trading update on 6 September, so the focus of investor attention will be on operating margins, outlook comments and any update on strategy.

Recent news: Hotels and restaurants' total sales increased by 10.1% during the period, with like-for-like sales up by 3.6%. In the Premier Inn sub-segment, total sales were up by 12.7% and like-for-like sales by 3.8%.

Analysts' expectations: Analysts at Charles Stanley commented: "The budget positioning of Premier Inn and the restaurant brands means we expect demand to remain relatively resilient. Indeed, Premier Inn could actually benefit from the tough economic environment as leisure and business customers trade down to the budget segment to reduce travel expenditure.

"Costa Coffee remains well placed to benefit from structural growth in the branded coffee shop market as coffee culture continues develop in the UK, Central/Eastern Europe and Asia. The shares are up by around 50% year to date, driven by upgrades to consensus earnings forecasts.

"The shares now look more fairly valued, but we see potential for estimates to continue to be revised upwards."

Valuation: At 2,349p, the shares are trading on a February 2013 price to earnings (PE) ratio of 16.2 times and a prospective yield of 2.4%.

Interim Results

Financial Highlights

· Total revenue up 14.2% to £1,018.1 million (2011/12: £891.3 million)
· Group like for like sales1 up 4.3%
· Underlying profit2 before tax up 10.6% to £193.4 million (2011/12: £174.9 million)
· Group return on capital3 increased to 13.7% (2011/12: 13.4%)
· Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants underlying profit2 up 8.5% to £181.3 million (2011/12: £167.1 million)
· Costa underlying profit2 up 29.9% to £36.1 million (2011/12: £27.8 million)
· Underlying diluted EPS up 13.1% to 81.65p (2011/12: 72.20p)
· Strong cashflow from operations4 up 11.0% to £285.3 million (2011/12: £257.1 million) funding capital investment of £187.6 million (2011/12: £129.0 million)
· Strong balance sheet, half year net debt of £525.8 million (versus £520.1 million at 1St September 2011)
· Interim dividend up 11.4% to 19.50p (2011/12: 17.50p)

Statutory Highlights

· Profit after tax and exceptional items for the half year up 8.9% to £173.4 million (2011/12: £159.2 million)
· Total basic EPS 98.20p up 8.2% (2011/12: 90.79p)

Growing Strong Brands

· Premier Inn UK grew total sales by 12.9%, with significant outperformance against its competitive5 set. Like for like sales1 up 3.7%
· Premier Inn opened 1,591 net UK rooms taking the total to 49,020; with a secured pipeline of over 11,000 rooms; on track for 2016 milestone of 65,000 rooms
· Restaurants performance continued to improve with total sales up 5.3% and like for like sales1 up 3.4%
· Costa delivered another outstanding performance. Total sales up 25.0%, UK like for like sales1 up 6.8% and underlying profits up 29.9%
· 141 net new coffee shops taking total to 2,344, up 6.4% from 2011/12
· 1,500 new UK jobs created by Whitbread brands, with 10,000 expected over the next three years

Trading Statement

Trading highlights for the 50 weeks:

Hotels and Restaurants *4
· Premier Inn increased total room nights sold by 11.2% to 13.0 million.
· Year to date, Premier Inn like for like revpar*5 grew by 1.6% with occupancy up 1.1% pts to 77.4% and rate*5 up by 0.1%. For the fourth quarter, like for like revpar*5 grew by 0.8% with occupancy up 4.2% pts and rate*5 down 5.5%.
· Over the fourth quarter, Premier Inn total revpar*5 grew by 0.7% compared with a decline of 0.8% for the Mid-scale and Economy sector*2 and the total market *2 down 0.6%.
· In the UK Regions, over the fourth quarter, Premier Inn total revpar*5 was down 0.3%. This compared with a decline of 0.9% for the Mid-scale and Economy sector*2 and growth of 0.8% for the total market*2.
· In the London market, for the fourth quarter, Premier Inn total revpar*5 was up by 2.2%. This compared with a decline of 5.0% for the Mid-scale and Economy sector*2 and the total market*2 down 3.6%. During the year, Premier Inn has increased room capacity by 22% in London*6.
· Restaurants delivered total covers growth of 5.5% year to date, of which like for like growth was 3.0%.
· Restaurants like for like sales growth of 0.2%, in the fourth quarter, was predominantly driven by strong trading over the Christmas period offset by adverse weather conditions in January.
· We are on track to open 4,300 new rooms and ten joint site restaurants in the UK this year and around 4,000 new rooms and a similar number of restaurants in the next financial year.


Costa
· Costa continued to perform strongly growing total system sales in the 50 weeks by 22.4% to £962.0 million, within which franchise sales were up 18.5% to £383.3 million.
· UK Retail system sales grew by 20.2% to £525.2 million, with equity stores delivering like for like sales growth of 6.6%.
· Costa Enterprises grew system sales to £225.6 million, up 29.7%.
· Overall the market in EMEI was robust with system sales growing by 11.7% to £165.5 million. However, Poland remains a difficult market with like for like sales now down year to date.
· Costa Asia system sales grew by 71.7% to £45.7 million. We continue to invest in infrastructure to support our rollout strategy.
· We are on track to open 320 net new stores worldwide and around 1,300 Costa Express units in the full year. Next year we plan to open a broadly similar number of net new stores worldwide and over 500 Costa Express units.

Group
· The strong financial position of the group remains unchanged.
· Today we have issued an update on meat supply. Please see our corporate website for details.

In other parts of the world, horse meat has the stigma of being something poor people eat and is seen as a cheap substitute for other meats, such as pork and beef.I think its time we had HORSE BURGERS.

Thanks for the heads up on this one Baylis,

These have had a V. good run over the last year, Going Ex. D. this week paying 37.9p.

Whitbread delivers double digit sales growth.

Hotels and Restaurants:
· For the 24 weeks Premier Inn grew total sales by 12.1%, total revpar*3 by 2.3% and total room nights sold by 10.7% to 7.2 million.
· During the quarter, Premier Inn grew total sales by 11.5% and total revpar*3 by 3.0% to £50.44. Our like for like revpar*3 grew by 2.4% with occupancy up 1.1%pts to 84.0%.
· In London, during the quarter, Premier Inn sales grew strongly by 16.1% as we increased the number of rooms available by 11.9% year on year and total revpar*3 grew by 3.1% benefitting from a higher proportion of rooms in Central London. The Midscale and Economy competitive set*4 grew total revpar by 0.3%. Our like for like revpar*3 grew by 0.4% driven by a 2.5%pts growth in occupancy to 91.4%.
· In the UK Regions, during the quarter, Premier Inn sales grew by 10.4% with total revpar*3 up 2.5%. The Midscale and Economy competitive set*4 grew total revpar by 6.4%, benefitting from weaker comparatives last year. Our like for like revpar*3 grew by 2.9%.
· Over the 24 weeks our restaurant business performed in line with the Coffer Peach industry tracker outside of the M25, with like for like sales marginally down (0.1%) and total sales up 2.5%..
· 1,270 new rooms, 11 hotels and 3 joint site restaurants were opened in the first 24 weeks. For the full year our plan remains to open around 4,000 rooms and ten joint site restaurants.

Costa :
· For the 24 weeks, Costa grew total system sales by 19.7% to £521.9 million with total franchise system sales up 18.0% to £207.3 million.
· UK Retail system sales grew by 17.3% to £279.5 million with equity stores delivering strong like for like sales growth of 5.7%. Our performance was biased towards the first quarter due to the colder weather in the first quarter and warmer weather in the second quarter.
· Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express) delivered systemsales of £126.8 million, up 24.5% as we added 553 net new machines in the 24 weeks taking our total Costa Express machines to 3,113.
· In the year to date, we have opened 78 net new UK stores, 70 in UK Retail and 8 in Costa Enterprises.
· International system sales grew by 20.7% to £115.6 million, with growth of 12.2% in EMEI and 53.2% in Costa Asia, with mid-single digit like for like sales growth in China. In the year to date, internationally we have opened 54 net new stores including 30 in China where we now have a total of 283 stores.
· We are on track with our plan to open around 300 net new stores and 850 Costa Express units in the full year.

Group
The strong financial position of the group remains unchanged.

Double digit growth at Premier Inn and Costa Coffee boosts Whitbread

Interim Management Statement

Trading highlights:

Hotels and Restaurants
· Premier Inn has continued to win market share and, for the 39 weeks, grew total sales by 12.9%, total revpar*2 by 4.0% and total room nights sold by 10.0% to 11.8 million.

· During the quarter, Premier Inn grew total sales by 13.7%, with a 7.3% increase in the total number of rooms available*3 and like for like sales growth of 5.4%. Total revpar*2 grew by 6.5%.

· In a strong London market, we grew total sales by 16.3% in the quarter with a 10.1% increase in the number of rooms available. Total revpar grew by 7.6% and our like for like revpar grew by 7.4% with occupancy at 90.0%. The Midscale and Economy London competitive set*4 grew total revpar by 10.6%.

· In the UK regions, our total sales grew by 13.5%, during the quarter, with a 6.9% increase in the number of rooms available. Total revpar was up 5.9% and our like for like revpar grew by 5.2% with occupancy up 1.2% pts to 81.7%. The Midscale and Economy regional competitive set*4 grew total revpar by 9.9%, benefitting from weaker comparatives last year.

· Although the restaurant market continues to be challenging, particularly outside of London, our Restaurants business improved its performance and outperformed its competitive set*5, with like for like sales growth of 1.8% in the quarter and an increase in covers of 0.7%.

· In the UK we opened 2,309 new rooms across 20 hotels and six joint site restaurants in the first 39 weeks. For the full year we plan to open around 3,500 new rooms. This is slightly less than originally anticipated including a short delay in the opening of a large Central London Premier Inn, which will now open in early 2014/15. Our new UK hotel pipeline remains strong at around 10,500 rooms, with approximately 4,500 expected to be open in 2014/15. Our pipeline includes 1,000 rooms for our new brand, hub by Premier Inn, with the first hotel due to open in St Martin's Lane in the second half of 2014.

Costa

· Costa continued to perform strongly growing total system sales in the 39 weeks by 19.4% to £882.0 million. Within this franchise sales were up 17.3% to £347.0 million.

· UK Retail system sales grew by 17.2% to £473.5 million, with equity stores delivering like for like sales growth of 5.3%.

· Costa Enterprises grew system sales to £215.6 million, up 23.1%.

· Costa EMEI grew system sales by 12.1% to £141.0 million. The Middle East continued to deliver a solid performance while trading in Central and Southern Europe remained difficult. We have opened two new equity stores in Paris, building on the two franchised stores in France.

· Costa Asia system sales grew by 53.5% to £51.9 million with slightly improved like for like sales growth in China for the quarter. Across Asia we opened 65 net new stores in the 39 week period and we continue to invest in infrastructure to support our rollout strategy.

· We plan to open around 300 net new stores worldwide and to install around 850 Costa Express units in the full year.

Group
· The strong financial position of the group remains unchanged.

Trading Statement

Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread, comments:

"Whitbread delivered a strong fourth quarter, with total sales growth of 14.0% and like for like sales growth of 6.8%, driven by a particularly good Christmas trading period and, to a lesser extent, favourable weather comparatives in January.

Premier Inn grew total sales*2by 15.2% and like for like sales by 8.3% in the fourth quarter, with a 5.7% increase in rooms available. We grew total revpar in London and the UK Regions by 7.0% and 9.6% respectively. We continue to invest in our product quality and the Premier Inn brand with the launch of "our best ever bed" campaign. This is a central pillar of our enhanced refurbishment programme. The performance of Whitbread Restaurants continued to improve and benefitted from the absence of snow with like for like sales growth of 4.4% in the quarter. We welcomed some 92,000 guests to our restaurants on Christmas Day with sales up 5.8%.

Costa had an excellent fourth quarter with total sales growth of 18.2%, driven by 312 net new store openings in the year and 7.3% UK like for like sales growth. Our Christmas campaign was well received, with like for like store transactions up 6.1% in the quarter.

The strong fourth quarter brings our year to date growth in total sales to 13.2% and like for like sales growth to 4.0%. This puts us on track to deliver full year results towards the top end of current expectations."

Trading highlights:

Hotels and Restaurants
· Premier Inn has continued to win market share, growing total sales*2for the 50 weeks by 13.3%, total revpar by 5.1% and total room nights sold by 9.7% to 14.3 million. Total occupancy was 78.0%, up 1.5% pts on last year.

· During the quarter, Premier Inn grew total sales*2 by 15.2%, with a 5.7% increase in the total number of rooms available and like for like sales growth of 8.3%. Total revpar grew by 9.6% and total occupancy was 68.1%, up 2.5% pts on last year.

· In a strong London market, we grew total sales by 17.0% in the quarter with a 10.7% increase in the number of rooms available. Total revpar grew by 7.0% with occupancy at 76.5%, up 1.5% pts on last year. The Midscale and Economy London competitive set*3 grew total revpar by 11.6%.

· In the UK regions, our total sales grew by 14.3% in the quarter, with a 5.1% increase in the number of rooms available. Total revpar was up 9.6% with occupancy at 67.1%, up 2.6% pts. The Midscale and Economy regional competitive set*3 grew total revpar by 14.5%.

· We announced during the year our enhanced room refurbishment programme and, as a consequence, have reduced the expected average life of a room from 15 to 12 years. This will increase our depreciation charge by around £6 million for this year and next.

· Restaurants delivered a good performance over the fourth quarter and benefitted from the favourable weather comparatives with like for like sales growth of 4.4% and covers up 3.7%.

· For the full year we will open around 3,500 new rooms and approximately 4,500 new rooms in 2014/15. Our committed UK pipeline remains strong at 10,500 rooms.

Costa

· Costa continued to perform strongly, growing total system sales in the 50 weeks by 19.2% to £1,151.8 million. Within this, franchise sales were up 16.8% to £447.6 million.
· UK Retail system sales grew by 17.6% to £622.9 million, with equity stores delivering like for like sales growth of 5.8%.
· Costa Enterprises grew system sales to £276.5 million, up 22.6%.
· EMEI system sales grew by 11.1% to £183.9 million. We have now opened four equity stores in Paris in addition to the two existing franchised stores in France.
· Costa Asia system sales grew by 49.7% to £68.4 million.
· Costa has opened 312 net new stores including 167 in the UK and 145 internationally and added 918 net Costa Express machines taking the total to 3,478. Next year we plan to open a broadly similar number of stores and install around 600 Costa Express units.

Group
· The Group remains in a strong financial position. We have signed an amendment to our £650 million syndicated bank facility, extending its maturity by two years to 4 November 2018 and introducing an option to extend it by a further two years beyond that date, with the consent of the banks at the time.

SOLDOUT TODAY AND THANKYOU.

Well done Baylis!

Results are due on Monday morning from Action Hotels (AHCG) with whom Whitbread have a joint venture to expand Whitbread's Premier Inn brand across parts of the Gulf. I would not be surprised if WTB buys a stake in AHCG at some stage.

Preliminary Results

DOUBLE DIGIT GROWTH IN REVENUE, PROFIT AND DIVIDEND

Whitbread PLC results for the financial year to 27 February 2014

Financial Highlights

· Total revenue up 13.0% to £2,294.3 million (2012/13: £2,030.0 million)
· Group like for like sales1 up 4.2%
· Underlying profit2 before tax up 16.5% to £411.8 million (2012/13: £353.4 million3)
· Underlying basic EPS2 up 20.1% to 179.02p (2012/13: 149.10p3)
· Full year dividend up 19.9% to 68.80p (2012/13: 57.40p)
· Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants profits4 up 11.2% to £348.1 million, Costa profits4 up 21.9% to £109.8 million
· Premier Inn total sales up 13.4% and like for like sales1 up 5.0%
· Costa total sales up 20.1% and like for like sales1 up 5.7%
· Group return on capital5 up 1.4% pts to 15.3%
· Strong cash flow from operations6 of £601.3 million funded capital investment of £306.2 million and 19.9% dividend growth
· Year end net debt down by £79.5 million to £391.6 million

Interim Management Statement

STRONG FIRST QUARTER: TOTAL SALES UP 12.7%

Trading highlights for the 13 weeks:

Hotels and Restaurants
· Premier Inn has continued to win market share, growing total sales*2for the 13 weeks by 14.2%, total revpar by 8.8% and total room nights sold by 11.2% to four million. Total occupancy was 80.7%, up 4.2% pts on last year and the number of rooms available increased by 5.5%.

· In a buoyant London market we grew total sales by 10.4% in the quarter with a 7.6% increase in the number of rooms available. Our total revpar grew by 3.6% with occupancy remaining high at 86.1%. For the London hotel market*4 total revpar grew by 3.6% in the quarter, and for the Midscale and Economy*4sector it grew by 8.7%.

· In the UK regions our total sales grew by 15.3% in the quarter, with a 5.2% increase in the number of rooms available. Our total revpar was up 9.9% with occupancy at 80.0%, up 4.9% pts. For the regional hotel market*4 total revpar grew by 9.2%, and by 13.9% for the Midscale and Economy*4sector.

· Restaurants delivered a good performance in the quarter, as well as benefitting from favourable weather comparatives, with like for like sales growth of 4.4% and like for like covers up 2.6%.

· 208 UK rooms were opened in the quarter and for the full year we plan to open around 4,500 UK rooms and five joint site restaurants.

Costa
· Costa grew worldwide system sales by 14.6% to £323.0 million and within this franchise system sales grew by 13.1% to £126.5 million.
· UK Retail system sales grew by 15.2% to £174.4 million, with equity stores delivering like for like sales growth of 4.5%. We opened 36 net new UK stores in the quarter.
· Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express) delivered system sales of £79.5 million, up 18.5%. There are now 3,729 Costa Express units.
· International system sales grew by 9.1% to £69.1 million, with growth of 4.2% in EMEI and 24.0% in Costa Asia.
· We plan to open around 300 net new stores and 600 Costa Express units in the full year.

Group
The strong financial position of the Group remains unchanged. At our full year results in April 2014 we expected capital expenditure of £360 million for 2014/15. Since then we have acquired two additional freehold properties in London and now anticipate capital expenditure to be over £400 million. We continue to see opportunities for further attractive freehold acquisitions.

Trading Statement

Hotels and Restaurants:
· Premier Inn has continued to win market share, growing total sales*2for the 24 weeks by 14.4%, total revpar by 8.7% and the number of rooms available by 5.5%. Total occupancy was 83.6%, up 3.7% pts on last year and total room nights sold increased by 10.4% to 7.7 million.
· In London we grew total sales by 10.6% with a 9.3% increase in the number of rooms available. Our total revpar grew by 1.5% with occupancy at 88.7%. For the London hotel market*5 total revpar grew by 2.6%, and for the Midscale and Economy*5 sector it grew by 7.4%.

· In the UK regions our total sales grew by 15.4%, with a 5.1% increase in the number of rooms available. Our total revpar grew by 10.1% with occupancy at 82.9%, up 4.2% pts. For the regional hotel market*5total revpar grew by 9.8%, and for the Midscale and Economy*5sector it grew by 13.7%.

· Restaurants delivered a good performance, benefiting from favourable weather comparatives, with like for like sales growth of 3.1% and like for like covers up 0.9%.

· 758 UK rooms have been opened in the year to date and for the full year we plan to open around 4,500 new UK rooms and five joint site restaurants.

Costa
· Costa grew worldwide system sales by 15.3% to £602.4 million and, within this, franchise system sales grew by 14.2% to £236.7 million.
· UK Retail system sales grew by 16.4% to £325.4 million, with equity stores delivering like for like sales growth of 5.8%. We have opened 76 net new UK stores in the year to date.
· Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express) delivered system sales of £151.5 million, up 19.1%. There are now 3,915 Costa Express units.
· International system sales grew by 9.3% to £126.8 million, with growth of 4.3% in EMEI and 20.8% in Costa Asia.
· We plan to open around 300 net new stores and 600 Costa Express units in the full year.

Group
The strong financial position of the Group remains unchanged. In the first quarter interim management statement we reported that capital expenditure for this financial year was expected to be over £400 million. Since then we have taken the opportunity, helped by our financial strength, to acquire three further freehold hotel sites in London (Clapham, Sutton and Westminster) and we now expect capital expenditure to be around £500 million.


more..

Barclays note today:
"The risks associated with Ebola have the potential to be significant, and this alone is enough to mean investors are likely to remain cautious on the space in the short term. As long as Ebola remains a ‘tail risk’, however we continue to regard Whitbread as the most attractive stock in the Leisure sector. We expect H1 results on 21st October to be a positive catalyst as we expect 100bp margin growth for hotels & restaurants along with an upbeat outlook commentary and clarity on the mix of future room openings. In this note we also decrease our price target for Accor to €39 from €40 as we lower our 2015 forecasts reflecting a weaker macro outlook and higher distribution costs. We expect a strong Q3 on 16th October with 4.7% LFL Sales growth but are cautious ahead of the ‘Digital Day’ on 30th October. We continue to like the long-term restructuring potential. We also expect a strong Q3 from IHG that could trigger some small upgrades for 2014 (we increase our 2014 forecasts slightly today).
• Whitbread (OW, PT: 4900p) – Top Pick. We believe consensus FY RevPAR forecasts of c5.5% imply c2.5% H2 RevPAR growth. Comps in H2 are c5.7% tougher than in H1, but we note that within the weekly data we track we have seen the 2-year trend accelerating in recent months (20% in Aug-Sept vs 12.5% in May-June), and should this pace continue it would point to similar y/y RevPAR growth in H2 as we have seen in H1 (ie, c8.7%). Based on our RevPAR tracking we believe Whitbread’s mix of London and the UK regions is currently running at c11% in Q3 to date."

Half Year Results

Financial Highlights

· Total revenue up 13.0% to £1,293.2 million (2013/14: £1,144.7 million)
· Group like for like sales1 up 7.0%
· Underlying profit2 before tax up 18.5% to £256.0 million (2013/14: £216.1 million)
· Underlying basic EPS up 21.5% to 111.69p (2013/14: 91.94p)
· Interim dividend up 15.6% to 25.20p (2013/14: 21.80p)
· Hotels and Restaurants underlying profit2 up 15.0% to £225.0 million (2013/14: £195.7 million)
· Costa underlying profit2 up 20.5% to £52.4 million (2013/14: £43.5 million)
· Premier Inn total sales up 14.7%, like for like sales1 up 9.6% and total revpar up 8.8%
· Costa total sales up 16.9%, worldwide system sales up 15.5% and like for like sales1 up 6.1%
· Group return on capital3 increased to 15.8% (2013/14: 14.4%)
· Strong cash flow with EBITDA4 up 17.1% to £343.1 million (2013/14: £293.0 million)
· Strong balance sheet: net debt £467.2 million (£391.6 million at 27th February 2014)

Statutory Highlights

· Profit after tax and exceptional items up 7.2% to £188.6 million (2013/14: £175.9 million). Last year's profit benefited from an exceptional deferred tax credit of £25.1 million following the decrease in the corporation tax rate
· Total basic EPS 105.43p up 6.1% (2013/14: 99.33p)

Investing for future profit growth

· On track for 2016 and 2018 growth milestones
· Expected capital expenditure of around £500 million this year, growing our hotel pipeline and Costa estate and further improving our customer experience
· Building Premier Inn and Costa international profit growth platforms
· 1,300 new UK jobs created by Whitbread brands, with a further 10,000 expected over the next three years

Trading Statement

Final Results

· Group like for like sales2 growth of 6.5%
· Premier Inn total sales growth of 15.3% and like for like sales up 9.1%
· Costa total sales growth of 17.9%, system sales up 16.6% and UK like for like sales up 6.0%
· Group return on capital3 increased to 15.7% (2013/14: 15.3%)
· Strong cash generated from operations of £714.2 million which funded capital investment4 of £565.3 million
· Strong balance sheet with year end net debt of £583.2 million (2013/14: £391.6 million)

Statutory Highlights
· Profit for the year up 13.2% to £366.1 million (2013/14: £323.4 million)
· Total basic EPS 204.81p up 11.9% (2013/14: 182.98p)

more....

terrific chart, but confess its not even a share that i considered, even though i rate costa and premier inns very highly

Toying with 2 year lows.

Barclays Capital Equal weight 3,844.00 4,600.00 4,600.00 Retains.

Trading Update

Total sales growth of 10.4%

On track to deliver full year results in line with expectations

Trading highlights:

Hotels and Restaurants
· Premier Inn has continued to win UK market share, growing total sales*2 for the 50 weeks by 11.1%, like for like sales by 4.4%, total revpar by 3.6% and the number of rooms available by 7.6%. Total occupancy remained high, in line with last year, at 81.1% and total room nights sold increased by 7.4% to 17.0 million.

· In the quarter, Premier Inn grew total sales by 7.3%, driven by a 6.9% increase in the number of rooms available, and occupancy increased by 0.3% pts to 71.4%. Like for like sales grew by 2.2%, ahead of our like for like revpar growth of 0.4%, due to our substantial extensions programme.

· Following the trend we highlighted in December, the market has continued to show a divergence in performance in the quarter between the regional and London hotel markets. In the regions Premier Inn grew total sales by 8.3%, with a 6.8% increase in rooms available, including c.2% from extensions. Total and like for like revpar grew by 1.5% and 1.4% respectively. Our regional occupancy remained high compared to the market at 70.6%, up 0.5% pts year on year. Total regional market revpar grew by 3.4% and the Midscale and Economy*3 sector grew total revpar by 4.5%.

· In London, despite a softer hotel market, Premier Inn grew total sales by 3.6% in the quarter, with an 8.0% increase in rooms available. Our total London revpar and occupancy declined, broadly in line with the market, by 3.6% and 1.5% pts respectively albeit our occupancy remained high at 76.1%. Total London market revpar declined by 3.3% and revpar for the Midscale and Economy sector was down 2.2%.

· Restaurants delivered total sales growth of 2.2% and like for like sales growth of 1.0% for the 50 weeks, ahead of our competitor set*4.

Costa

· Costa grew its worldwide total sales by 14.2% and like for like UK sales by 3.0% for the 50 weeks.
· Year to date Costa grew worldwide system sales by 13.1% to £1,516 million (13.4% at constant currency). Within this, franchise system sales grew by 10.6% to £572 million.
· UK Retail system sales, grew by 14.1% to £833 million with equity stores growing like for like sales by 3.0%. We opened 103 net new UK stores.
· Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express UK & International) delivered system sales of £374 million, up 12.6%. Costa Express maintained its success with the installation of a further 921 Costa Express machines*5 taking the total to 5,213.
· International system sales grew by 11.0% to £309 million (12.4% at constant currency). 79 net new stores were opened in the period with 41 in EMEI and 38 in Asia.

Group

This year we shall open around 5,500 new UK Premier Inn rooms, including c.1,500 rooms from extensions, and plan to open a further c.5,000 new UK rooms next year, including c.1,700 rooms from our hotel extensions programme, which will have a c. 1% impact on our like for like revpar. For Costa this year we expect to open c.200 net new stores worldwide and install around 950 Costa Express machines and we plan to open a further c.230 net new stores worldwide and install around 1,000 Costa Express machines next year.

Over the next year, as previously advised, we are planning an additional P&L investment, which we estimate to be c.£15 million. Our capital investment of c.£700 million will remain broadly the same as we continue to drive our organic growth and further improve the quality and consistency of our customer offer. Our strong freehold backing provides us the opportunity to recycle capital and we expect to carry out a sale and lease back transaction during next year. We remain on track to deliver on our growth milestones, which will enable us to create sustainable shareholder value.

Our strong financial position remains unchanged.

just bought into these (3836) as though the figures weren't the greatest, they certainly weren't bad, so i thought 5% drop was excessive ..... and yes, they have dropped tad since, but not remotely concerned as am very happy to hold

after a dull few weeks, this has certainly perked up in the last few days
look at the chart and it will give a cluue as to why it may be worth a dabble ...... 25/50 dma being challenged

Whitbread PLC results for the 53 week financial year to 3 March 2016


· Group total sales growth of 12.0% and like for like sales2 growth of 3.0%
· Premier Inn total sales growth of 12.9% and like for like sales up 4.2%
· Costa total sales growth of 15.9%, system sales up 15.3% and UK like for like sales up 2.9%
· Group return on capital3 of 15.3% (2014/15: 15.7%) includes investments in future hotel openings
· Strong cash generated from operations of £782.2 million which funded capital investment4 of £724.9 million
· Strong balance sheet with year-end net debt of £909.8 million (2014/15: £583.2 million)

Numis Hold 3,969.00 4,000.00 4,000.00 Reiterates

Panmure Gordon Hold 3,969.00 3,800.00 3,800.00 Reiterates

sp has caught fright this morning on the back of RTN's profit warning and thus WTB's own Costa brand
i don't know what proportion Costa contributes to WTB's profits, but the fall is looking overdone
chart shows this to be a good support level - 25/50 dms pretty much coincide - but worth hanging back just for now though perhaps not for long

bugger ..... missed the bottom as went out shopping but just bought a few at 3873 instead of <3860 just b4 i went

The "Trouble" must have stopped going in Costa every week day!!!

looks like a "buy" to me ..... but not sure if i want to find funds to do so

=============

had a few shillings sitting in my sipp a/c so have bought a few

a small piece of fortune ..... for some reason yesterday's order for my sipp did not register, so have bought 60p cheaper :-)

I am keeping powder dry on this one for a bit longer.

mine is for sipp, so a long term hold anyway

i reckon the company's hotels etc must benefit from weaker £

I have no doubt about the quality of the business. Just looking at support levels on chart.

3400 looks a "must buy" if it gets that low

That's exactly where I am looking. :)

i'ld also add at that level

Small long on the spreads for a bounce back up into bollinger band.

And out, let's see if this can push on from here or continue down.

well done chris, though i am holding with at least a longish view in my sipp

WTB
i've had these in my sipp for a couple months where they were already showing a modest 4.5% profit before today ..... the following buy note has given them a further fillip

Hotel and restaurant operator Whitbread rises 2.5 pct after Credit Suisse upgrades to "outperform" from "neutral"
* Broker says valuation undemanding level after underperformance (PE at one of its lowest levels relative to the FTSE 350 since 2008 according to Reuters data)
* Credit Suisse says £150m of cost cuts likely to mitigate against rise in the UK minimum wage
* Stock has been one of the biggest losers from UK's hike in minimum wage, down 25 pct since the July 2015 announcement despite a recent rally

Also Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley have issued
the following ratings today:

Morgan Stanley TP: 4,700p Overweight

Credit Suisse TP: 4,550p Outperform

Preliminary Results

Financial Results
· Group total sales growth of 8.2% and underlying profit before tax up 6.2% to £565.2 million
· Premier Inn total sales growth of 9.0%, and like for like sales2 up 2.3%
· Costa total sales growth of 10.7%, system sales up 12.7% and UK equity like for like sales2 up 2.0%
· Group return on capital3 of 15.2% (2015/16: 15.3%)
· Cash generated from operations of £860.1 million, which funded cash capital investment of £609.8 million and a proposed full year dividend up 6.0% to 95.80 pence

Alison Brittain, Chief Executive, said:

"Whitbread has had another year of strong growth and continued investment with total Group sales increasing 8.2% to £3.1 billion and underlying basic earnings per share increasing by 6.0%, demonstrating the strength of our core brands. Total basic earnings per share increased by 7.3%.

In 2016/17 we made good progress in delivering on our three strategic priorities: to grow and innovate in our core UK businesses; to focus on our strengths to grow internationally; and to build the capability and infrastructure to support long-term growth.

Premier Inn's strong sales growth benefitted from the 3,816 gross new UK rooms we opened this year and the accelerated maturity of the c.9,000 rooms we have opened over the last two years. We delivered high customer satisfaction by leading the market on quality and value, achieved occupancy of over 80% with record levels of direct bookings at 94%, all of which supported our strong return on capital.

Costa opened 255 net new stores worldwide and we continue to roll out our successful and fast growing Costa travel formats. Costa Express had a great year installing over 1,500 machines of which 248 were in international markets. We are innovating to drive our sales growth and are pleased with the investment we are making to introduce 'finer' coffee concepts, leveraging our new state of the art Roastery and delivering fresher food that our customers will enjoy later this year.

Internationally, in Germany we grew our hotel pipeline to five hotels and our Frankfurt hotel received great guest feedback. We continue to have success with our profitable joint venture in the Middle East while our phased withdrawal from South East Asia is on plan. China remains an exciting platform of growth for Costa and we have a clear plan to enhance our business. We have launched five new concept stores, the results of which give us further confidence that we can capitalise on this market opportunity and grow to significant scale.

During the year we continued to strengthen our capabilities to support our long-term, growth, including developing the senior team with a number of new hires and promotions. In November we announced a £150 million cost efficiency programme to help offset investment and sector cost pressures. We have made good progress this year in areas such as procurement, supplier consolidation and labour scheduling, which has helped maintain margins.

In the year ahead we will continue to focus on organic growth and investing in our customer proposition. This, together with our efficiency programme and disciplined capital management gives us confidence in delivering another year of good progress, in line with overall expectations. Whilst we are only seven weeks into our new financial year Premier Inn has had a good start to the year and Costa has also seen positive like for like sales growth, although we remain cautious and expect a tougher consumer environment than last year.

In the longer term we remain confident that, with our significant structural growth opportunities, the power of our brands and the investments we are making, we will continue to deliver strong returns and sustainable long-term growth for our shareholders".

Richard Baker, Chairman, said:

"Whitbread is one of Britain's longest established and most successful companies and celebrates 275 years in business this year. We are very aware of our responsibilities to ensure that this great British company continues to thrive and, as such, we are focused on driving growth while managing risk and demonstrating excellent corporate governance. We operate a conservative approach to the management of our balance sheet and this provides us with a solid base in turbulent and changing times. Our strong cash flow generation has enabled us to increase the full year dividend by 6.0% to 95.80 pence".

Panmure Gordon Hold 3,989.00 3,800.00 3,800.00 Retains

been commending this for some time on the "other thread" that i frequent

for a few months it has looked a good defensive stock for all sorts of reasons which surely do not need spelling out
today's figures and the market reaction vindicate that

Interims:

Whitbread profit up 20%

Whitbread booked a 20% rise in first-half profits after its opening of new hotel rooms helped boost revenue.

Pre-tax profit rose to £316m, up from £264m, after revenue jumped 7.4%.

Much of the growth in revenue came from the Premier Inn hotels business, for which the company opened more than 2,000 new rooms.

Like-for-like revenue growth at the Costa coffee chain, however, slowed to 0.6%.

Whitbread declared an interim dividend of 31.4p, up 5% on the previous year.

"Despite the well known short-term economic uncertainty, our performance in the first half was good and we expect to meet expectations for the full year," the company said.

StockMarketWire.com

possibly worth getting in for a quick trade
fall of 3% looks ridiculous against these very good results

Liberum Capital Hold 3,804.00 4,150.00 4,150.00 Reiterates

First half results from Whitbread showed evidence of a bit of a summer slowdown, with revenues at its Premier Inn hotels and Costa Coffee arms both softening.

This could be the reason for the drop Alf.

£34 coming soon !!!

CD - how often are your forecasts of gloom and doom for stocks X and Y ever proved accurate and within even a couple of months?

Ouch.

Numis Hold 3,752.00 - 4,100.00 Reiterates

Citigroup Sell 3,704.50 - 3,200.00 Retains

cynic Send an email to cynic View cynic's profile - 24 Oct 2017 10:59 - 63 of 67

CD - how often are your forecasts of gloom and doom for stocks X and Y ever proved accurate and within even a couple of months?


You will have to excuse Alf these days CD as he spends most of his time on holiday...he also seems to have gone blind.

3700 remains a long way north of 3400 and nof course my question to CD was ignored

Stan - talking of being blind, have you noticed the relative performance of BATS and IMB of late?

No why should I?

Holding(s) in Company

sp has got excited once more, but no obvious reason and volume not exciting either

has there been a chunky bear position in this stock?
if so, it may be that the squeeze is being applied, as sp is now at its highest since 23/10 when it was already heading sharply downward

===================

banked a very nice profit at 3959 from nowhere on my trading position
still hold in my sipp

cynic - see the rns above - coincides with the start of the rise.





Sachem Head are known to be 'active' shareholders.

but they only hold 3.4%

Its a start.....

cynic :- Whitbread share price jumps as activist investor stake puts Costa breakup on the table

we knew that yesterday ...... imo, this surge is probably overdone but i'll continue to hold in my sipp

Yes - I was spelling it out for you........ :-)

i see none of you follow this one, though it is one my long-term sipp holdings

market clearly liked this morning's numbers, and there has been a good bounce pretty much off the 200 dma

Interim Results

Good financial performance and on-plan for full-year results
· Sale of Costa to The Coca-Cola Company for £3.9 billion approved by shareholders

· UK network increased to over 74,000 rooms, with a committed pipeline of over 13,000 rooms

· Strong pipeline in Germany with around 6,000 rooms to be delivered by 2021

· Solid financial performance supported by tight cost control, maintaining strong return on capital

· On-plan to deliver full-year results from continuing operations

· Revenue increased 2.6% to £1,079 million, reflecting continued capacity addition

· Total UK accommodation sales growth of 4.8% and like-for-like accommodation sales growth of 0.2% impacted by weaker consumer demand

· Underlying profit before tax increased in-line with sales by 2.5% to £270 million, supported by tight cost control and the benefit of the ongoing efficiency programme

· Costa is now reported as a discontinued operation, statutory profit for the period increased 3.5% to £47 million

· Strong cash generation with discretionary free cash flow at £283 million

· Strong balance sheet with net debt of £881 million and committed debt facilities of £1.8 billion

· Statutory profit before tax was maintained at £257 million

· Return on capital held broadly flat at 12.4% despite pace and timing of new capacity


more.....