30/04/2013

Whitbread Announce UK Jobs Boost

Whitbread, the hotel and restaurant group, has said it plans to create 12,000 jobs in the UK over the next five years.

According to Sky News, the group outlined its plans for expansion as it continues to see its profit increase.

The group owns both Premier Inn and Costa Coffee and has created 3,000 UK jobs over the last year alone. It said by 2018, it planned to increase the number of its hotel rooms by 45% to 75,000 and double its sales at Costa Coffee to £2bn.

Over the twelve months to February 28, like-for-like sales at the coffee chain increased by 6.8%.

The figures come as the group – which also runs the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre pub restaurant chains – reported an 11.4% growth in underlying pre-tax profit to £356.5m.

Chief executive Andy Harrison described the results as "excellent", adding: "In April 2011 we established ambitious milestones to grow Premier Inn UK rooms by 50% to 65,000 rooms and to double Costa's worldwide system sales to £1.3bn.

"We are well on track to achieve these milestones and have announced new 2018 milestones to grow Premier Inn UK by 45% to around 75,000 rooms and to double Costa's system sales to around £2bn."

(JP/CD)

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