Whitbread plans to double the number of Costa Coffee outlets to 2,000 over the next five years.
It sees opportunities to open more coffee bars in central London and in towns where it is under-represented as well as in retail parks and at roadside locations. It will also open more units within Tesco.
The leisure group laid out plans to aggressively expand Premier Inn at home and abroad. It plans to add another 19,000 rooms in the UK in five years to take it to 55,000.
It denied it was in talks to swap Whitbread’s pub-restaurants with Mitchells & Butlers’ (M&B) lodge business, although it was open to an asset swap or a deal to manage M&B’s lodges.
29/04/08 Financial Times 18
Times 36, 38, 40
Daily Telegraph B3
Guardian 28
Independent 40
