Whitbread surprises with strong first quarter Whitbread posted an unexpectedly strong start to 2012 thanks to the continued expansion of its flagship Premier Inn hotels and Costa coffee chains. Total sales at Premier rose 12.4 per cent - 4.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis - with resilient growth in London offsetting softer performance elsewhere in the UK. Costa's rapid store expansion helped shrug off a depressed consumer environment to gain 8.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis, helping Whitbread's total sales rise 13.9 per cent. Following Costa's strong performance, Andy Harrison, chief executive, played down suggestions that the company was considering plans to spin out the coffee chain. "Costa has been performing well for a number of years," said Mr Harrison. As we said, we have no plans to spin Costa out. We are 100 per cent focused on growing Costa and you can see from these numbers we are achieving a fair amount of success. The group said it planned to open another 350 Costa stores within the financial year. Shares in the group were up 5.6 per cent to £19.53 in morning trading, having risen by more than a quarter in the past 12 months. Whitbread said that its overall first-quarter performance was flattered by a weak comparative quarter from last year, when the extra bank holidays surrounding the royal wedding weighed on the group's performance. However, Mr Harrison warned Whitbread faced tougher comparisons for the second quarter, as well as the "uncertain" effects of the London Olympics. Mr Harrison said: "We haven't had an Olympics [in the UK] in living memory and we don't really know what impact it will have on business - probably not substantial, simply because it's a relatively short period of time." He predicted a modest boost from the summer's sporting events. "It will be a few million pounds - which in the context of Premier Inn, is not very much," said Mr Harrison. Olympic demand is strong. Our hotels within the vicinity of the Olympics are pretty close to being full. Whitbread said Premier Inn was on track to meet its target of 65,000 UK rooms by 2016, with an extra 4,200 being added this financial year.