Costa helps lift sales at Whitbread
Costa, the Whitbread owned chain of coffee shops, grew its UK like-for-like sales by 4.5% in its first quarter as the business continued its rapid growth.
In the 13 weeks to 29 May 2014, Costa increased its UK retail system sales by 15.2% to £174.4 million. The chain opened 36 new UK stores in the period.
Worldwide system sales rose by 14.6% to £323 million and within this franchise system sales grew by 13.1% to £126.5 million.
International system sales grew by 9.1% to £69.1 million, with growth of 4.2% in EMEI and 24% in Costa Asia.
Costa Enterprises, which includes Costa Express, delivered system sales of £79.5 million, up 18.5%. There are now 3,729 Costa Express units.
The coffee chain is planning to open around 300 net new stores and 600 Costa Express units in the full year.
Whitbread chief executive Andy Harrison said: “Costa once again extended its excellent track record, with total sales growth of 15.9% and like-for-like sales growth of 4.5%, against demanding comparatives from last year.”
Across the wider Whitbread group, which also includes the Premier Inn chain, like-for-like sales increased by 6.9% with total sales growing by 12.7%.
Harrison added: “Whitbread is well positioned for another good year with our strong brands continuing to win market share, reinforced by ambitious organic network expansion.2
