Whitbread: ‘No compelling’ case to sell Costa Coffee

Whitbread, an operator of hotels, restaurants, and coffee shops, stood by its expansion plans in the UK and international markets, after posting a near 12% rise in full-year profit.

Shares in the Ftse-100 company, which owns Premier Inn hotels and Costa Coffee chains, rose about 1.5% in London yesterday.

Alison Brittain, who took over from previous chief executive Andy Harrison in January, voiced her support for Whitbread’s previous 2020 milestones of about 85,000 Premier Inn UK rooms and about £2.5 billion (€3.2bn) systems sales for Costa.