Costa Coffee owner Whitbread's first-half profit rises

Britain's Whitbread said its first-half profit rose 5.4 per cent, helped by growing demand at its Premier Inn hotels and the Costa Coffee chain.

Whitbread, Britain’s biggest hotel and coffee shop operator, said on Tuesday underlying pretax profit rose to £307 million in the six months to September 1st, from £291.3 million a year earlier.

Total revenue rose 8.1 per cent to £1.55 billion.

Reuters