Partner Article

3,500 new jobs at Costa Coffee

Whitbread are set to open 350 Costa stores this financial year, creating an additional 3,500 UK jobs after reporting solid growth in the first quarter.

The firm, which also owns budget hotel chain Premier Inn, reported that underlying sales rose 4.5% in the 13 weeks to 31 May. This was helped by an 8.4% increase in like-for-like sales at Costa, and a 4.3% jump at Premier Inn, which is also has plans to expand.

Commenting on the results, chief executive Andy Harrison said: “Our plans for profitable growth are well established, supported by our strong balance sheet, and we plan to open 4,200 Premier Inn rooms, eight joint site restaurants and 350 new Costa stores this financial year, creating an additional 3,500 UK jobs.

Cost is the biggest coffee shop chain in the UK with almost 1,400 shops and a further 800 units in 25 overseas markets. In the last quarter Costa opened 35 new UK stores, and 35 new Asian stores, of which 22 were in China, where the coffee chain has 186 outlets.

Like-for-like sales at Premier Inn grew by 3% over the quarter, with occupancy increasing by 1.3% to 76.2%.

Whitbread posted a rise in full year profits in April, and said that Premier Inn had enjoyed strong sales growth in the new financial year, recovering from a dip over Christmas.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .