Whitbread reports strong sales

The group's trading has been driven by the performance of Premier Inns, which has benefited from the trend of corporate customers using budget hotels in the economic downturn. Total sales at Premier rose by 17.8% to £311 million, whilst the occupancy rate was 79.3%, which Whitbread said was well ahead of the industry average. Costa Coffee also continued to expand during the same period, leaving the group with 1,121 stores by the end of August. There were 775 outlets in the UK after adding 84 new sites. These openings contributed to a 25.6% hike in Costa's revenues to £123.2 million, with like-for-like sales ahead by 3.7% in the first half of the year. Alan Parker, chief executive officer of Whitbread PLC, said: "We have made excellent progress in the first half of the year with strong sales and profit growth across the group. Furthermore, improved productivity and cost management have helped increase the group operating profit margin despite significant cost inflation. "Whilst we anticipate that conditions will become more challenging in the remainder of the year, since the end of August the group continues to make good progress across our leading brands in value for money sectors."