Dunstable / UK. (wbp) Costa Coffee, Europe’s largest coffee shop chain and part of British Whitbread PLC, grew its worldwide total sales by 16.2 percent and like for like sales in the United Kingdom by 4.6 percent in the 24 weeks to 13 August 2015.
«Costa maintained its rapid growth with worldwide sales growing by 16.2 percent and UK Retail system sales up 14.8 percent. In the UK like for like sales growth was good at 4.0 percent, against a strong performance last year. August is often affected by weather and holiday patterns and trading this August, across all our brands, was softer than expected against strong comparatives from an excellent month last year», says Chief Executive Andy Harrison in the statement Whitbread Trading Update for the 24 weeks to 13 August 2015.
Costa Coffee grew worldwide system sales by 15.1 percent to 693.7 million GBP (15.1 percent at constant currency). Within this franchise system sales grew by 12.2 percent to 265.7 million GBP.
UK Retail system sales, year to date, grew by 15.7 percent to 376.5 million GBP with equity stores growing like for like sales by 4.6 percent. Whitbread opened 61 net new stores in the UK.
Costa Enterprises (including Costa Express UK + International) delivered system sales of 175.0 million GBP, up 15.5 percent. Costa Express maintained its success with the installation of a further 379 Costa Express machines taking the total to 4’671.
International system sales grew by 13.6 percent to 144.1 million GBP (13.6 percent at constant currency). Eleven net new stores were opened in the period with two in EMEI and nine in Asia.
In the year Costa plans to open around 220 net new stores. This includes the closure of around 60 lower margin UK franchise stores in petrol stations following their disposal by Esso. Whitbread also plans to install around 700 to 800 net Costa Express machines in the year.
About Whitbread PLC
Whitbread PLC is the owner of the UK’s favourite hotel chain, Premier Inn and the UK’s favourite coffee shop, Costa, as well as restaurant brands, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Taybarns. The Group employs over 45’000 people in more than 2’200 outlets across the UK, with its well-loved brands making every day experiences special for over 25 million UK customers every month.
Whitbread has outlined growth milestones for 2016, 2018 and 2020. The 2020 milestones are to increase the number of Premier Inn UK rooms to around 85’000 and to achieve global system sales of around 2.5 billion GBP for Costa Coffee.
In the year ended 26 February 2015, Whitbread PLC reported a 13.7 percent increase in Group Revenue to 2’608.1 million GBP and Underlying Profit before tax of 488.1 million GBP up 18.5 percent (Image: Whitbread PLC).
