Whitbread PLC on Thursday reported a swing to annual profit, on a strong recovery from the worst of the pandemic, with the Premier Inn owner also reinstating its payout.
The Dunstable, England-based hotel and restaurant company swung to a pretax profit of £58.2 million in the year to March 3, from a loss of £1.01 billion a year earlier.
This was on revenue that more than doubled to £1.70 billion from £589.4 million.
The Premier Inn hotel chain owner attributed its performance to a strong recovery from the pandemic, after hotels and restaurants were allowed to operate ‘largely’ restriction-free from July 19.
The company added that total accommodation sales for its UK hotel business, Premier Inn UK, continued to outperform the market, even with the emergence of the Omicron variant that damped demand in December.
Moreover, trends kept improving in February as most remaining government restrictions were lifted.
Encouraged by its strong set of results, Whitbread reinstated its dividend with a final payout of 34.7 pence per share.
Looking ahead, the FTSE 100 firm expects to generate a pretax loss between £60 million to £70 million for Premier Inn in Germany in financial 2023.
The company explained that occupancy levels in Germany were at 51% in the first seven weeks of the new financial year and noted that the market is still some way behind pre-Covid levels.
‘Whitbread’s performance in the year was strong, with revenue and profit recovering exceptionally well from last year. Our hotels traded well-ahead of the market in the UK driven by our ’investing to win’ commercial initiatives and the strong appeal of our customer offer,’ Chief Executive Alison Brittain commented.
‘As we move into the next phase of our post-Covid recovery, Whitbread is well-placed to enhance our market leadership position further in the UK, to accelerate our growth in Germany, and drive long-term value for all our stakeholders.’
Shares were up 4.0% at 2,868.40 pence each on Thursday morning in London.
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