Whitbread Plc, a hotel and restaurant chain in UK, reported a growth of about 5% in its pretax profit for the full year ended March 4, 2010, beating the market expectations. The company said that its better than expected full year result was mainly attributable to its strategy of offering cheaper rooms at Premier Inn hotels and expanding its Costa coffee chain. Whitbread also revealed its plans of expanding its Costa coffee chain both in the U. K. and internationally.

Whitbread said in its annual report that the full year pretax profit was reported of £239.1 million, increasing by 4.7% while it was reported of £224.4 million in the previous corresponding period. The figures of pretax profit came ahead of the market expectations.

Total revenue was reported of £1.44 billion in the full year, increasing by 7.5% while it was reported of £1.3 billion in the previous fiscal.

"Whitbread has performed strongly in the most challenging hotel and restaurant trading conditions for a generation," said Alan Parker, chief executive of Whitbread.

Whitbread also reported that it had saved £13 million in the fiscal 2009/10 by applying cost cutting measures. The company said that it is on track to achieve £25 million cost savings in three years. Whitbread had already saved £7 million in cost saving in fiscal 2008/09.