Budget hotel chain Premier Inn – which recently secured its 8th location in Ireland – has said it remains on course to meet its long-term target of having 125,000 bedrooms across the UK and Ireland, and is seeking further opportunities to meet that.
It comes on the back of parent group Whitbread posting a strong set of first half financial results.
Those group results show Premier Inn UK (which covers the UK and Ireland, but excludes its German business) grew first half revenues by 14%, to £1.5bn, and profits by 28% to £407m.
Premier Inn has 8 sites in Ireland – some already open and operating; some scheduled to open – with its newest plan for Usher’s Quay in Dublin. The chain believes there is total scope for 3,000 rooms in Ireland.
Dominic Paul, Whitbread Chief Executive, said: “This is an impressive first half performance. In the UK, we maintained high levels of occupancy whilst continuing to attract excellent guest scores and offering great value for our customers. The strengths of our operating model and our continued focus on driving cost efficiencies across the business resulted in UK margins exceeding pre-pandemic levels. In Germany, we are making good progress and are continuing to refine our strategy based on our learnings to-date and whilst there is much work to do as we continue to grow, we remain on course to achieve our long-term ambition of 10-14% return on capital.
“We are generating significant operating cash flow that we are redeploying into future profit growth as well as returning value to shareholders through increased dividends and share buy-backs. Given the structural shift in hotel supply and by continuing to invest in our assets, our brand and our teams, we remain confident that we can both extend our market leading position in the UK and replicate that success in Germany.
“The Group is in excellent shape, trading well and has significant growth potential, both in the UK and Germany. Based on our strong performance to-date and an encouraging forward booked position, we remain optimistic about the full year outlook and look forward with confidence as reflected by our increased interim dividend and further planned share buy-back.”
