Hotel, restaurant and café operator Whitbread (WTB) looks to have shaken off a slow start to the year, with its Premier Inn and Costa Coffee brands behind a 3.1 per cent rise in like-for-like sales. The cold weather affected the restaurant trade, but benefited the Costa cafés as shoppers sought warming cups of coffee.
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The Costa brand remains the fastest growing part of Whitbread's business and the company plans to open 300 outlets during the year. Costa's total sales grew by 23.1 per cent to £281m, while franchised shops saw revenues rise by 21.6 per cent to £111m. Meanwhile, at Premier Inn, revenue per available room grew by a like-for-like 1 per cent on the back of a slightly higher occupancy rate of 76.6 per cent.
