COFFEE shops to budget hotel owner Whitbread has lifted profits by nearly a fifth after seeing Costa and Premier Inn go from strength to strength. Costa's expansion and success in tapping the UK's coffee shop culture meant the division's half-year profits rose 20.5 per cent to £52.4 million, while a recovery in the regional hotel market helped Premier achieve record occupancy of 84 per cent. Across the group profits rose by 18.5 per cent to £256m in the six months to August 23. Whitbread is spending around £500m this year on another 4,500 Premier Inn rooms in the UK and 230 Costa stores worldwide. That will keep the firm on track to achieve its milestones, which include a total of 75,000 UK rooms by 2018. Today it has 56,019 rooms in 681 hotels.