Costa owner blames falling sales on high street decline

Whitbread plans more outlets in busier locations to offset weak city centre spending

Whitbread has blamed falling sales at its Costa coffee shops on cash-strapped shoppers staying away from Britain's high streets.

The company, which is the UK's biggest coffee-shop chain, said sales at outlets open for more than a year fell 2% in the quarter to the end of May. Costa has 3,800 coffee shops, with 2,400 in the UK. It also has more than 8,000 highly profitable coffee vending machines.