Whitbread UK sales rise slightly; Holds FY guidance
By Frank Prenesti
Date: Thursday 16 Jan 2025
(Sharecast News) - Premier Inn owner Whitbread held full year guidance and said UK accommodation sales in the Christmas/New Year period were up 2%, while hotels in Germany also performed strongly.
In a third quarter trading update, Whitbread said total group sales fell 2% to £763m, which accommodation revenue flat. Trading improved during the quarter resulting in total accommodation sales broadly in line with last year, while total revenue per available room (RevPAR) - a key industry metric - was down 3%.
In Germany, total accommodation sales rose by 37%, with RevPAR up 28%.
Whitbread, which also owns the Beefeater pub chain, said that taking into account the impact of measures in last October's Budget, it expected gross UK cost inflation to range from 5% - 6% on its £1.7bn cost base for 2026.
Factoring in efficiencies of £50m it also forecast net cost inflation to fall to between 2% - 3%.
Whitbread has a five-year expansion plan targeting adjusted pre-tax profit of at least £300m and £2bn in shareholder distributions by 2030. It also wants to increase its hotel room estate to 98000 by that date as part of a longer-term strategy of reaching 125000.
Analysts at Shore Capital rated the stock a 'buy' and said they anticipated underlying estimates will remain broadly unchanged for both full year 2025 and 2026, "although we will likely nudge profit before tax down next year to include a further £5-10m drag from lower net interest income".
"Although the macro-outlook remains clouded we would expect Whitbread's relative position to continue to strengthen."
Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com
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