Yahoo Finance Whitbread Boss Calls Time After Strong Year
Whitbread (LSE: WTB.L - news) has announced its chief executive Andy Harrison is to step down by February while revealing annual results showing profit growth of 34%.
The company, which includes the Costa Coffee and Premier Inn brands in its stable, reported pre-tax profits of £463.8m in the 12 months to 26 February.
Total (Swiss: FP.SW - news) sales at Costa grew 17.9%, driven by its UK operations.
Whitbread said it now had 1,931 shops in the country and opened 219 net new stores worldwide and added 777 net new Costa Express machines.
It also announced plans to triple its presence in China to 900 shops by 2020.
Underlying operating profit for the coffee division increased by 20.7% to £132.5m.
Premier Inn grew total sales by 15.3% to £1.1bn, with like for like sales growth of 9.1%.
Whitbread said it opened 33 new hotels and closed eight in the UK, taking the total to 697, saying that amounted to around 200 more than its nearest competitor.
The main focus was on the looming departure of Mr Harrison, who took the top job in September 2010.
The succession process was being led by chairman, Richard Baker, Whitbread said.
It added that he would be considering external and internal candidates.
Mr Baker said: "Whitbread has gone from strength to strength under Andy's leadership, delivering consistent rapid and profitable growth built around our strong brands and the company's unique culture.
"Over the last five years our revenues have grown by 13% per annum, driving a 17% per annum growth in our earnings per share, which has increased the company's market capitalisation from £2.5bn to £9.7bn.
"Whitbread has a clear strategy, ambitious growth milestones and the strength of leadership to successfully deliver these goals."
Mr Harrison said: "After 18 years as chief executive of three different public companies it is time for me to plan my retirement from full time executive life and to seek new challenges.
"In the meantime, it is business as usual, which means that the Whitbread team and myself remain fully focused on continuing to deliver profitable growth."
