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Whitbread PLC on Thursday backed full year guidance despite ‘limited visibility’, some uncertainty around the forthcoming UK budget and reduced guidance for its German business. In response, shares in the Bedfordshire-based hotel and restaurant company fell 8.9% to 2,938.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning. The wider FTSE 100 was down 0.2%. The Premier Inn owner said pretax profit fell 7.1% to £287 million in the half-year to August 28, from £309 million 12 months earlier. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit fell 7.1% to £316 million from £340 million, 4% ahead of £305 million consensus, with adjusted earnings per share down 2.5% to 133.7 pence from 137.1p. The FTSE 100 listing said this reflected broadly flat UK total accommodation sales and positive momentum in Germany, offset by the anticipated lower food and beverage sales due to the continued implementation of its ’accelerating growth plan’. Revenue declined 1.8% to £1.54 billion from £1.57 billion, but beat £1.53 billion consensus. Premier Inn UK total accommodation sales were broadly in line with last year and revenue per available room was down 1% reflecting a soft first quarter followed by a return to market growth in the second quarter. At Premier Inn Germany, sales grew by 9% and despite softer than expected market demand, pretax losses narrowed to £3 million from £9 million. Whitbread said its five-year plan is on track to deliver incremental adjusted pretax profit of at least £300 million by financial 2030. The firm delivered £43 million of cost savings in the financial first half and remains on course to deliver £250 million of savings by financial 2030, it added. Looking ahead, Whitbread said it remains ‘confident’ in the full year outlook. ‘While forward visibility remains limited and despite some uncertainty around the forthcoming UK budget, positive trading momentum and encouraging levels of bookings into future periods in both the UK and Germany mean we remain confident in the full year outlook,’ the firm said in a statement. But it lowered expectations for its German business and now expects full year adjusted pretax profit of up to £5 million, versus previous guidance of £5 million to £10 million. In the UK, higher than expected cost inflation will be partially mitigated by increased cost efficiencies of £65 million to £70 million, versus previous guidance of £60 million, so that net inflation remains within the previously guided range of 2% to 3% on its £1.7 billion UK cost base. In the six weeks to October, Whitbread said Premier Inn UK accommodation sales and RevPAR were both up 3% year-on-year with a strong performance in London that benefitted from a number of events in the period, including the Oasis concerts. The forward booked position is ahead of last year, and Whitbread said it remains confident in maintaining a ‘healthy’ RevPAR premium versus the market. But food and beverage sales are 4% down year-on-year, although Whitbread said this was in line with expectations, reflecting the removal of a number of lower-returning branded restaurants. In addition, Whitbread provided an updated property valuation of £5.5 billion to £6.4 billion. The dividend was left unchanged at 36.4p per share while Whitbread pledged to return £2 billion via share buy-backs and dividends by financial 2030. It said it was on track to complete the previously announced £250 million share buy-back by the end of April 2026. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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