Whitbread PLC on Thursday reported a drop in profit and revenue in its recent financial year, affected by its Food & Beverage service costs and revenue.
Whitbread is a Bedfordshire, England-based hotel and restaurant owner which owns the Premier Inn brand.
It reported pretax profit of £367.8 million in the year that ended February 27, down 19% from £451.7 million in financial 2024, as revenue fell 1.3% to £2.92 billion from £2.96 billion.
Profit also was hurt by impairment charges of £76 million, as well as the company’s IT and Food & Beverage programme costs, which amounted to £45 million.
The decline in overall revenue was due to lower Food & Beverage revenue as a result of Whitbread’s ’accelerating growth plan’ and a ‘softer UK market demand’. Food and beverage revenue was £673.1 million in the recent financial year, down 10% from £750.6 million.
However, the company said this was ‘mitigated by strong growth in Germany’. Food & Beverage revenue in Germany was £26.7 million in financial 2025, up 19% from £22.4 million.
In the UK & Ireland, Food & Beverage revenue was £646.4 million, down 11% from £728.2 million.
Accommodation revenue totalled £2.21 billion in the recent financial year, up 1.7% from £2.17 billion in financial 2024.
Whitbread declared a final dividend of 60.60 pence per share for financial 2025, down 3.7% from 62.90p a year before. This brought the full-year payout to 97.0p, unchanged from financial 2024.
Whitbread also Thursday started a £250 million share buyback programme. It will be run by investment bankers Morgan Stanley & Co International PLC and be completed by April 30 next year.
Whitbread said it is ‘positive’ about its medium-term outlook and the delivery of its five-year plan which is expected to increase group adjusted pretax profit by around £300 million by financial year 2030. Adjusted pretax profit was £483 million in financial 2025, down 14% from £561 million in financial 2024, so Whitbread is aiming for £783 million by financial 2030.
Whitbread also said it is on track to generate more than £2.00 billion in operating cashflow for share buybacks and dividends.
Chief Executive Dominic Paul said: ‘This will be a breakthrough year in Germany and we are set to deliver our first ever adjusted profit in financial 2026. We are growing quickly, driving strong guest satisfaction scores, performing well ahead of the market and our cohort of more established hotels is on track to reach its targeted double-digit level of returns.
‘We remain confident in realising our long-term ambition of becoming the country’s number one hotel brand, delivering significant revenue growth, attractive long-term returns and providing a platform for potential expansion into other international markets.’
Whitbread shares were up 2.7% to 2,661.85 pence in London on Thursday morning, while the wider FTSE 100 index was marginally lower.
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