Chief Executive's Q&A video
Whitbread - Alan Parker results interview 2010
Transcriber: Visual Media Services Limited
Length: 6 mins 10 secs
Word length: 870
[00:28] Well, we have the leading brand in the country in the hotel business, which is Premier Inn. We have some very famous and well-established brands in our restaurants, our Beefeaters, our Brewers Fayre, and one of my newer ones, Table Table, and our latest, Taybarns, which has been a great success. And, of course, Costa is the fastest growing and now number two coffee shop brand in the world, which is an incredible achievement, I think, and one I'm very proud of.
[00:56] When I started with Whitbread, 18 years ago, we were a brewery. We had shire horses, we had thousands of pubs, we had thousands off-licences, and during that time, when I started, 18 years ago, and when I've been Chief Executive, over the last 6 years, we've become focused, we've become the largest, number one, hotel and restaurant company in the country. We've expanded ourselves internationally and we are in very good shape for the future.
[01:30] The last financial year has been one of the toughest in living memory. We've had a good recession, we went into it well-prepared, we were - we flexed our plans, we cut back a bit on our capital expenditure, while still managing to expand. One of the key highlights of our last financial year are the fact that we've actually increased our profitability by over 6%, we've improved our cash flow by some £300 million, year on year, which is a big number, and we've continued to grow, both our hotels, our restaurants, and our coffee shops. So, all in all, despite the recession, we've had a good year.
[02:18] Well, we set ourselves three clear priorities at the beginning of the year. First and foremost, we had to outperform the market, that's beat the competition, which we have done. Secondly, we had to make ourselves more efficient and look for ways of saving money and reducing our costs, we have done that, as well. And the third area was to achieve what we call 'cash flow neutrality,' that's not to increase our borrowings in order to develop, but rather to only spend the money which we make in terms of cash and profits.
[02:56] Premier Inn has done superbly well. We have had a great year and, despite the recession, we've managed to put in some really good performing, and ran the business as well. Now, when we look at the YouGov Brand Index, which is recognised to be the kind of measurement of brands in the country, Premier Inn is the strongest hotel brand in the country.
[03:24] We've acquired more than 300 stores here in the UK and internationally, and grown the profits by some 60% year on year. That's a fantastic achievement. I don't know of any better in the high street today. I'm absolutely delighted with Costa.
[03:28] We're building market share in two different ways. First of all, we're going to increase the volume of sales in our existing businesses, let's improve our occupancy in Premier Inn, sell more meals in our restaurants, and improve both our cup of coffee and our meal take-up rate in Costa. So, increasing the throughput in our existing businesses. And, secondly, we're going to expand our network, and take business away from the competition.
[03:58] International expansion is a very exciting opportunity. We've got over a thousand rooms now open internationally and, last year was a landmark year, we opened our first in India, the first of many hotels in India, which is in Bangalore. Costa, of course, acquired Coffeeheaven, which is in Central Europe, largely in Poland, though in adjacent countries, as well, and we're going to be using that base, of Coffeeheaven, to expand Costa throughout Central Europe.
[04:30] Whitbread's always been good at corporate responsibility, but we decided to take it up to a new level. And we talked to all our people and we launched an umbrella programme, which we called Good Together. We launched it in January, 2010, which sets clear targets for very important things, like waste, like carbon footprint and energy reduction, and water management, and lots of other sort of specific targets in the company. So, it's a really great programme, with lots of momentum. I shall not forget the first all-green purpose-built new hotel, which we'll be opening in Burgess Hill this autumn. It's the first time in this country anyone has taken a new hotel, the Beefeater Grill restaurant, and opened it up. And we're achieving some 70% reduction in energy compared to a normal hotel, and some 60% reduction in water.
[05:31] Well, my highlights at Whitbread are too numerous to mention. It's been a fantastic job, in fact, I would say the best job in the country, doing the thing which I love to do, and working with a fantastic bunch of people. Approaching retirement with mixed feelings, but I know the company is in great shape, I think it's going to have a fantastic future, but, we've still got a long way to go until November, and our key objective, at the moment, is to make 2010 an even better year than 2009.
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