Costa Coffee drives Whitbread growth
A near 30% sales bump for Marketing Week’s brand of the year, Costa Coffee, helped parent company Whitbread perform “strongly” over the summer.
The coffee chain reported like for like sales, from outlets opened for a year or more, grew 9.7% in the 11 weeks to 18 August. Including shops opened in the past year, sales grew 28.8%.
Budget hotel chain Premier Inn registered a 7.1% increase in like for like sales as cash-conscious consumers sought cheaper nights away.
Strong performances at Costa and Premier helped lift Whitbread’s like for like sales 4.8% in the period.
Food brands such as Beefeater Grill and Brewers Fayre delivered the only bad news for the company, with same outlet sales falling 1.6%.
