The hotel giant will replace 197 branded restaurants including Beefeater and Brewers Fayre
Premier Inn’s parent company Whitbread has revealed proposals to axe approximately 3,800 positions across the UK and Ireland as part of a fresh five-year plan aimed at cutting expenses and transforming its dining operations.
The hospitality giant announced it will phase out its remaining 197 branded restaurants in favour of hotel-integrated food and drink services, which it described as more streamlined and better aligned with guest preferences.
Whitbread emphasised that the proposals affecting its 30,000-strong workforce remain subject to staff consultation, and anticipates retaining a significant number of impacted employees through internal redeployment. The firm also shared its ambition to transition into a “pure-play” hotel operation centred on Premier Inn, withdrawing from all remaining branded restaurant chains, including Beefeater and Brewers Fayre.
Certain locations will be transformed into roughly 600 new hotel rooms, while others are likely to be sold. The announcement follows mounting pressures on Whitbread after the UK’s most recent budget intensified strain on its finances, forcing the business to make changes in order to protect profits, reports the Express.
A spokesperson said: “Whitbread has announced today that, as part of its proposed new Five-Year Plan, it intends to become a pure-play hotel business focused on Premier Inn, the UK’s number one hotel brand, which is synonymous with quality and value. This change will involve exiting all of our remaining branded restaurants, which trade under brands including Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, a number of which will be converted into approximately 600 additional Premier Inn rooms, with the remainder expected to be sold as going concerns.”
They added: “The proposed changes announced today build on the success of our Accelerating Growth Plan, announced in 2024, which involved the conversion of over 200 branded restaurants to additional rooms, and the creation of an integrated restaurant in each hotel. This format has proved highly popular with guests and under the proposal, it would be rolled out to all hotels where there is currently a branded restaurant.”
The statement continued: “We recognise the impact of this proposal on colleagues who work at the affected sites. As a business which recruits around 15,000 people every year, we expect to be able to retain a significant proportion of those affected and will be looking to redeploy as many of our impacted colleagues as possible.”
It concluded: “However, we do anticipate that the proposed changes, which are subject to consultation, would result in a reduction of around 3,800 roles of a total UK and Ireland workforce of around 30,000. We will do all we can to support those colleagues affected.”
Whitbread is reportedly aiming to generate £2bn in free cash flow by 2031 through a substantial restructuring programme, which includes releasing £1.5bn from property assets and reducing capital expenditure by more than £1bn. The strategy will decrease its freehold portfolio to between 30 per cent and 40 per cent from approximately 50 per cent, aligning it more closely with competitors such as Hilton and Marriott International, which possess fewer of their properties.
Management has already started transforming underperforming restaurant locations into hotel accommodation in an effort to boost returns, with this latest restructuring representing a substantial intensification of those initiatives.
Chief executive Dominic Paul commented: “We always challenge ourselves to improve and, in light of significant cost increases in the form of business rates and national insurance, as well as the implied market discount to our inherent value, we’ve looked hard at the options open to us to maximise value creation over the medium and long-term.”
He added: “This has been a rigorous process and we’ve approached all options with an open mind. Our new five-year plan builds on our strengths and drives a significant acceleration of our strategy.”
Whitbread indicated the transition will diminish adjusted pre-tax profit by £10 million during the current financial year as it converts sites in the latter half of FY27.
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