The costa coffee

Wednesday, 20 June 2012 12:45

Written by Editor

Whitbread, the owner of Costa Coffee and Premier Inn, has announced it will create 3,500 new jobs in the UK this financial year. Whitbread opened 35 new UK stores over the first quarter period this year with 29 in UK Retail and six 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. Costa is already Britain's biggest coffee shop brand with almost 1,400 shops and has a further 800 units in 25 overseas markets, including China and India.

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 budget hotel chain Premier Inn.

Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread, said: "Our plans for profitable growth are well established, supported by our strong balance sheet."
But he added: "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."

In April, Whitbread posted a rise in full-year profit and said Premier Inn had enjoyed sales growth since the start of the new financial year, recovering from a dip over Christmas and in the early part of 2012.