Costa Coffee, the Whitbread-owned high street chain, saw like-for-like sales (LFLs) grow by 5% in the 13 weeks to 28 May 2015. 

In a trading update, Whitbread said Costa had experienced a good start to the year, growing total system sales by 15.9% to £375.2m and, within this, franchise system sales rose 13.5% to £143.6m.

Costa plans to open around 250 net new stores and 700-800 net Costa Express machines in the full year.

Chief executive Andy Harrison, who will be replaced in December by Alison Brittain, who joins the company in September, said: “Costa had another excellent quarter, with total sales growth of 17.2% and UK retail like for like sales growth of 5.0%, driven by winning more customers with like-for-like transaction growth of 4.4%. Costa’s international business continues to grow rapidly with a 15.1% growth in system sales (14.1% at constant currency).”

The group, which also runs pubs and hotels, saw LFLs increase by 4.3% during the period, while total sales rose 12.5%.

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