Costa Coffee, the Whitbread-owned café chain, has posted UK like-for-like (LFL) sales growth of 2.5% for the 13 weeks to 26 November 2015.

Costa’s year-to-date LFL sales have increased 3.7%, suggesting a slight slowdown in Q3. Growth for the quarter was also slower than the Whitbread group average of 3.5%, which was bolstered by Premier Inn’s 4.7% LFL sales increase.

Costa has opened 69 net UK stores year-to-date, taking the combined total of UK Costa Retail and Costa Enterprise stores to 2,000.

Alison Brittain, chief executive at Whitbread, said: “In Costa and Premier Inn we have built the nation’s most loved coffee shop and hotel brands and we have laid out clear and ambitious growth milestones. I am looking forward to building on the foundations of the business by investing in our people, our network and our infrastructure to enhance our customer offer, further strengthen our brands and deliver profitable growth.

“Whitbread has had another good quarter and, for the year to date, we have delivered total sales growth of 11.1% and like-for-like sales growth of 3.6%. Our brands continue to win market share and we are on track to deliver full-year results in line with market expectations.”