Costa total sales rise for 2016
Whitbread PLC reported its trading performance to 1 December 2016.
Alison Brittain, Chief Executive of Whitbread, said, "We continue to make good progress against our three point strategic plan: to grow and innovate in our core UK businesses; to focus on our strengths to grow internationally; and to build the capability and platform to support future growth.
"We expect to open 230-250 net new Costa coffee shops worldwide and to install at least 1,500 new Costa Express machines, having already surpassed our previous guidance of 1,250 in the current financial year."
"In the quarter, Costa delivered total sales growth of 12.5% and good like for like sales growth of 4.3%. This performance was supported by its new advertising and promotional campaigns and benefitted from the timing of the quarter end, which included a strong start to the Christmas period. For the comparable period, to 26 November, excluding this timing benefit, Costa's like for like sales growth was 2.9%," Brittain said.
Costa grew total system sales for the 39 weeks in 2016 by 13.0% to £1,317 million (10.4% at constant currency). Within this, franchise system sales grew by 13.6% to £503 million (9.1% at constant currency). Costa UK Retail grew system sales by 11.6% to £708 million.
Costa Enterprises grew system sales for the 39 weeks by 9.3% to £322 million respectively, while International system sales increased by 21.4% to £287 million (9.2% at constant currency). We remain committed to the long-term growth opportunities for Costa in China, despite a tougher near-term trading environment.
Year to date we opened 186 net new stores worldwide and installed 1,266 Costa Express machines, exceeding its target for 1,250 installations this year and takes the total number of Costa Express machines to 6,482, of which 696 are in international markets. The company now expects to install at least 1,500 new Costa Express machines this financial year.
Photo credit: Costa Coffee Facebook page
