Whitbread - Strength in depth

Whitbread continues to show that the strong get stronger with Premier Inn, much the largest UK hotel chain, materially outperforming the market throughout H1 to August and to date (by 14% in the seven weeks to 14 October). Notwithstanding seasonality, accentuated by the staycation boon, management expects leisure demand to remain buoyant, with tradespeople business resilient and office-based custom recovering, thereby a potential return of UK like-for-like RevPAR to pre-pandemic levels ‘at some point in 2022’. Robust, asset-backed finances (£2.1bn liquidity) give ample scope to capitalise on structural opportunities, enhanced by COVID-19 fallout, in the highest growth segment of the hotel market, both domestically and in Germany, where management is confident of replicating its UK success.