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London: Whitbread, owner of Britain's biggest hotel and coffee-shop chains, announced long-term plans to open hundreds more Premier Inn budget hotels and Costa Coffee shops as it posted forecast-topping results.
Demand for frothy coffees and budget hotel rooms remained strong despite the credit crunch as like-for-like sales in the first two months of Whitbread's new financial year grew around 5.7 per cent, the same as this time last year, Chief Executive Alan Parker said.
The company plans to build at least 100 more Premier Inns next to its Beefeater and Brewers Fayre pub restaurants by 2013, and have 55,000 rooms worldwide. Whitbread currently owns 518 Premier Inn hotels with 36,000 rooms, making it the largest hotel company in the UK.
With almost 1,000 Costa coffee shops around the world, including almost 700 in the UK, Whitbread wants to double that figure to 2,000, with half the new shops in the UK.
Pretax profits before exceptional items rose 26.3 per cent to £210.3 million ($415 million) for the year to February 28, topping a £208 million consensus from a Reuters poll of 18 analysts.
Asian expansion is important for growth with Whitbread recently announcing plans to open 80 Premier Inn hotels in India within 10 years. It opened its first hotel in Dubai earlier this month, with plans for 50 hotels with Dubai's Emaar Properties.
In the UK it wants a Premier Inn hotel next to each of its 400 pub restaurants.
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