Premier Inn owner Whitbread has reported a drop in profit in its latest half-year as uncertainty dampened demand for hotels.
The firm’s pretax profit fell by 7.1% to £220m, down from £237m this time last year, driven in part by a weak UK travel market and high inflation.
Revenue was broadly flat at £1.08bn for the six months to the end of August. Total UK accommodation sales fell by 0.6%, or 3.6% on like-for-like basis.
Despite this, basic earnings per share increased by 1.9% to 104.3p and Whitbread maintained its interim dividend at 32.7p.
Whitbread chief executive Alison Brittain said: “We have delivered a resilient first-half profit performance despite challenging market conditions in the UK. Shorter-term trading conditions in the UK regional market have been difficult, particularly in the business segment where we have a higher proportion of our revenue, while trading in London remained strong. Against this challenging backdrop, we have a number of activities under way which continue to build our brand strength as the UK’s favourite hotel chain.”
She added that the firm was focusing on a higher-end “Premier Plus” chain in the UK as well as continued expansion in Germany.
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