Costa, the Whitbread-owned coffee brand, has posted an increase in like-for-like sales of 4% for the 11 weeks to 13 August 2015.
The coffee chain outperformed other Whitbread brands in its Q2 results, with the group achieving an increase in overall like-for-like sales of 3.3% and total sales of 11.1%. It trailed Premier Inn (LFL sales up 4.3% in the 11 weeks) and performed more strongly than the hotel and restaurant divisions.
Plans for the brand this year include opening around 220 net new Costa stores worldwide. This includes the closure of around 60 lower margin UK franchise stores in petrol stations following their disposal by Esso. It also plans to install 700 to 800 new Costa Express machines.
Andy Harrison, chief executive of Whitbread, said: “We are continuing to deliver our ambitious organic growth plans with another good quarter, growing total sales by 11.1% and like-for-like sales by 3.3% for the 11 weeks to 13 August.
“Costa maintained its rapid growth with worldwide sales growing by 16.2%. In the UK like-for-like sales growth was good at 4%, against a strong performance last year. August is often affected by weather and holiday patterns and trading this August, across all our brands, was softer than expected against strong comparatives from an excellent month last year.”
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