Costa Results Announced
The third quarter growth comes from new stores and Costa Express expansion.
Alison Brittain, Whitbread CEO said, “We have made good progress in executing our strategy and have grown group sales so far this year by 6.8%. This growth, combined with the results from our group-wide efficiency programme, means that we are on track to achieve expectations for the full year.
She added, "Costa UK has delivered strong total sales growth of 7.2% in the quarter, as we pursue our strategy to increase our presence in high footfall and convenient locations such as drive-thru and travel locations and we are particularly pleased with the strong performance of Costa Express. As a result of our channel strategy, more customers are drinking more cups of our coffee than ever before and we have gained market share. We have also continued to invest in the overall customer proposition, including new coffee, food and digital capability. These improvements have been well received by our customers and we have just been voted as the nation’s favourite coffee shop, for the eighth consecutive year."
"Our Costa high street stores in the UK are highly profitable and generate strong returns. However, the well-publicised weak retail market footfall is negatively impacting our high street stores’ like-for-like performance and we expect this to continue for some time. Internationally, Costa in China continues its good momentum with another quarter of positive like-for-like sales growth. We remain committed to delivering our strategy to invest in the attractive structural growth opportunities in the budget hotel market and the growing coffee markets, in both the UK and internationally.
"We do expect the tough UK high street environment and inflation in our sector to continue to pose challenges in the year ahead. However, we have good momentum in the delivery of our plan to enhance our UK market leadership positions, create an international business of scale in Germany, China and Costa Express, and develop a more efficient infrastructure. This will create further customer loyalty and deliver long-term growth in earnings and dividends and a strong return on capital,” Brittain concluded.
