ANALYST VIEWS: WHY IS WHITBREAD OUTPERFORMING OTHER GROUPS ?
GEORGE GODBER | MATTERLEY ASSET MANAGEMENT
Whitbread has a very strong management team and in the bull market did not take on lots of debts like other groups. Premier Inns has obviously performed well but Costa Coffee is also very strong. This is a successful comnpany which has made shrewd decisions over the last few years.
SIMON FRENCH | PANMURE GORDON
The trading update demonstrates the business is relatively resilient and is benefiting from its position towards the budget sector. Costa should be relatively robust also as the average spend for coffee is relatively small so it will hardly be hit by consumers cutting back on expenditure.
HUGH-GUY LORRIMAN | SEYMOUR PIERCE
Like-for-like results can be misleading but these seem genuine and the company has turned in an excellent performance. Whether it is outperforming other groups is difficult to say because there are diffferent issues for differnt companies but this is a well run operation which is cautiously optimistic.