7:42am UK, Tuesday June 19, 2012
The coffee shop and restaurant firm enjoyed a strong first quarter, with group like-for-like sales up 4.5%.
Within that, like-for-like sales were up 8.4% at Costa Coffee, and 4.3% at Premier Inn.
Whitbread opened 35 new UK stores over the period; 29 in UK Retail and 6 in Costa Enterprises.
The group said it plans to open a further 4,200 Premier Inn rooms, eight joint site restaurants and 350 new Costa stores this year.
Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread, said: "Costa has continued its excellent momentum delivering a 25.3% growth in total sales, with an 8.4% increase in UK like-for-like sales and strong international growth."
He added: "We expect comparative quarterly trading to continue to be variable.
"For the second quarter we face tougher comparatives against a strong result last year, together with the uncertain impact of this summer's major sporting events."
More follows...
