---- Adds analyst comment, share price ---
Premier Inn and Costa Coffee owner Whitbread (LON:WTB) served up higher profits and vowed to create 15,000 jobs within five years.
Whitbread reported a 13.8% rise in underlying pre-tax profit to £291.3mln on a 3.6% increase in group like-for-like sales in the six months to August 27.
Costa Coffee drove the gains with a 28.4% lift in divisional underlying operating profit to £67.3mln.
Premier Inn budget hotels' total sales rose 12.6% and like-for-like sales were up 5%. The group boosted its interim dividend by 13.1% to 28.5p.
Hotels & restaurants, which include Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, lifted underlying operating profit by 10.8% to £249.4mln.
Whitbread said it was on track to hit 2018 and 2020 growth targets.
"The achievement of these growth milestones would create about 15,000 new UK jobs over the next five years," Whitbread said in its results statement.
Alison Brittain joined Whitbread as chief executive designate on September 28 and will succeed Andy Harrison as chief executive on December 7.
Chairman Richard Baker said: "Andy joined a good company five years ago and, when he leaves us in a few weeks, he will leave it an even better company."
Harrison said: "Whitbread has once again delivered double digit revenue and underlying profit growth.
"Trading momentum in the early weeks of the second half has been consistent with that seen across the first half. We remain on track to deliver full year results in line with expectations."
Shares rose 109p to 4834p. Whitbread told analysts it plans to open 220 net Costa stores this year and add 700-800 machines. The group would like 2,500 stores in the UK by 2020 – it currently has 1,999.
China & Asia should see 50 new stores added this year. The China slowdown ‘is not helping’ but Costa is a very small part of the economy and says ‘its success is in its own hands’
The group is ‘looking at and starting to expand into’ a number of other European countries
Langton Capital analysts said: "Whitbread has reassured that UK trading is in line with expectations and concludes that its performance in China is not yet being adversely impacted by the economic slowdown in that country.
"The group’s brands have legs both domestically and overseas. Whitbread’s shares have reacted positively to today’s announcement. The shares are rarely ‘cheap’ and, at around 20x this year’s earnings, that remains the case.
"However, the growth profile remains attractive, the group is conservatively financed and is well asset-backed. Sellers have little reason to exit the shares and would-be holders remain poised to take advantage of any share price setbacks."