Premier Inn and Costa Coffee operator outlines five-year growth plans

Hotel and restaurant operator Whitbread plans to open more than 200 new hotels in the UK by 2020 and further grow its Costa Coffee chain, the company has revealed.

Outlining its results for 2014-15, the firm said it would invest 拢700m in capital schemes over the next 12 months, up from 拢565m in the past financial year.

Whitbread currently has 697 UK hotels, with just over 59,000 rooms. It said the target for 2020 was 900 hotels with around 85,000 rooms in total, adding that the London market would be a 鈥渒ey focus鈥 of its expansion.

The company said its 2015-16 pipeline envisaged the opening of around 5,500 new hotel rooms, and 250 new branches of Costa Coffee.

Whitbread added that around 拢100m of its capital plans for the current financial year would involve the provision of 鈥700-800 Costa express machines鈥, roughly doubling the number it installed over the past financial year.

The company currently has 1,931 Costa Coffee shops, but did not specify a target number for 2020.

Chief executive Andy Harrison said the capital programme showed the firm was 鈥渃ontinuing to invest in strengthening our brands and organic network growth鈥.

Harrison also announced his decision to retire from Whitbread after five years as chief executive.

The firm鈥檚 results showed underlying profit before tax of 拢488.1m in 2014-15, an increase of 18.5% on 2013-14. Revenue was up 13.7% from 拢2.3 to 拢2.6bn over the same period.