Tue 10th Sep 2013 - Breaking News - Whitbread delivers 2.1% sales growth Whitbread delivers 2.1% sales growth: Whitbread has reported like-for-like sales growth of 2.1% in 11 weeks to 15 August with total sales up 10.8%. Premier Inn and Costa Coffee were up 3% while pub restaurant sales dropped 0.2%. Chief executive Andy Harrison said: “Whitbread delivered another good performance, with total sales growth of 10.8% for the 11 weeks to 15 August and like-for-like sales growth of 2.1%. So far this year Premier Inn has grown total sales by 12.1%, like-for-like sales by 2.9% and added 1,270 new rooms, with especially strong growth in London, where total sales were up 17.7%. Our restaurant business, which does not benefit from the stronger London economy, performed in line with the Coffer Peach industry tracker with a marginal like for like sales decline of (0.1%) (in the 24 weeks to 15 August). Costa has continued to grow rapidly with total sales up 20.8%. The strong UK like-for-like sales growth of 5.7% (in the 24 weeks to 15 August) was biased towards the first quarter due to weather comparatives. Costa also celebrated the opening, in Bangkok, of its 1,000th international coffee shop in August. We are on track with our annual plan and our ambitious five-year growth milestones. Combined with our emphasis on returns, this growth should continue to create substantial shareholder value.” Over the 24 weeks (to 15 August) the pub 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%. For the 24 weeks to 15 August, 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%. The company stated: “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 system sales of £126.8 million, up 24.5% as Whitbread added 553 net new machines in the 24 weeks taking our total Costa Express machines to 3,113. In the year to date, Whitbread has opened 78 net new UK Costa stores, 70 in UK Retail and eight 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 the company has opened 54 net new stores including 30 in China where it now has a total of 283 stores. The company added: “We are on track with our plan to open around 300 net new stores and 850 Costa Express units in the full year.”