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Whitbread To Close Or Convert Remaining Branded Restaurants As Premier Inn Owner Pivots To Hotels

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Whitbread is proposing to close or convert its remaining branded restaurants across the UK and Ireland, putting around 3,800 roles at risk as the Premier Inn owner accelerates its move towards a hotel-focused business.

Brewers Fayre and Premier Inn Southport - Wiki
Image: Brewers Fayre and Premier Inn Southport – Wiki

The company said the plan would affect 197 remaining branded restaurant sites, including names such as Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, as it replaces standalone restaurant formats with food and drink services integrated into its hotels.

Background

Whitbread has been moving away from its traditional pub and restaurant estate for several years, with Premier Inn now the centre of the group’s strategy.

The latest announcement builds on Whitbread’s Accelerating Growth Plan, first launched in April 2024. That earlier phase included plans to convert 112 lower-returning branded restaurants into hotel extensions and exit 126 lower-returning restaurants as going concerns.

Whitbread said at the time that the changes would support the creation of around 3,500 additional Premier Inn rooms and improve long-term profit performance.

The new proposal goes further, extending the programme to all 197 remaining branded restaurants in the UK and Ireland. It does not affect Costa, which Whitbread sold to Coca-Cola in a deal agreed in 2018 and completed in 2019.

Current Developments

Whitbread announced the latest plan on 30 April 2026 as part of its full-year results and the outcome of a wider business review.

The company said it now intends to move to a “100% integrated” hotel food and beverage model. In practice, that means replacing branded restaurants with simpler food service linked directly to Premier Inn sites, rather than operating separate restaurant brands alongside its hotels.

Around 3,800 roles are at risk, although Whitbread said it expects to redeploy a significant number of affected employees. The company employs around 30,000 people in the UK and Ireland and said formal consultation with staff would begin.

Whitbread has not yet published a full site-by-site closure list, nor has it confirmed a complete timetable for every restaurant affected.

The restaurant brands reported to be affected include Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Whitbread Inns, while other Whitbread food brands such as Bar + Block and Cookhouse + Pub have also been linked to the wider branded restaurant estate.

The company said the wider business review is designed to make Whitbread a more focused hotel group. Its targets include £275 million of incremental adjusted profit before tax by the 2031 financial year, £1 billion less gross capital expenditure, £1.5 billion from property recycling and £2 billion of free cash flow for shareholder returns.

However, the transition comes with short-term costs. Whitbread said the extension of the restaurant plan would reduce food and beverage sales by £140 million to £160 million in the 2027 financial year, create a £40 million transitional hit from the remaining branded restaurants and produce a net £10 million drag on adjusted profit before tax.

Whitbread’s latest results showed group revenue broadly flat at £2.92 billion, while food and beverage revenue fell from £673.1 million to £627.3 million. Statutory pre-tax profit fell 19% to £298 million.

Analysis And Implications

The move reflects a major shift in how Whitbread sees the value of its estate.

For years, brands such as Beefeater and Brewers Fayre formed a familiar part of the Premier Inn experience, often sitting beside hotels and serving both guests and local customers. Whitbread is now signalling that the hotel rooms themselves are the stronger long-term asset.

The company is also acting against a difficult cost backdrop for UK hospitality. Whitbread has previously warned that business rates and other Budget-related cost pressures would add tens of millions of pounds to its bills. UKHospitality has also warned that business rates increases are putting pressure on hotels, pubs and restaurants across the sector.

The decision comes after activist investor Corvex Management disclosed a stake in Whitbread in December 2025 and called for a strategic review. Whitbread’s review has now produced a plan focused on simplifying the business, reducing capital intensity and returning more cash to shareholders.

Investors gave the announcement a cautious reception. Reuters reported that Whitbread shares fell sharply during trading on 30 April before recovering some ground by the close. The market reaction suggests shareholders may see the logic of a hotel-focused strategy while still questioning the execution risk, near-term profit impact and consequences of selling or recycling more property.

For staff, the immediate issue is consultation and redeployment. Whitbread said it hires around 15,000 people a year and expects to retain a significant proportion of affected workers, but Unite has called for full consultation over the proposed redundancies.

For local communities, the impact will depend on what happens to individual sites. Some restaurants may be converted into Premier Inn space, some may be sold to other operators and others may disappear from local hospitality use altogether. CAMRA has previously criticised Whitbread’s pub conversion plans, arguing that some sites serve as local community assets as well as hotel restaurants.

What Happens Next?

The next stage is the employee consultation process, followed by more detail on which sites will close, convert or be sold.

Whitbread has not yet released a complete list of affected locations, so local announcements are likely to follow in stages. Planning applications and local authority decisions will also shape how quickly some sites can be converted into hotel space.

The key questions now are how many staff can realistically be redeployed, how many restaurant sites remain in hospitality under new owners and whether Whitbread can deliver the financial benefits it has promised by 2031.

For customers, the most visible change is likely to be the gradual disappearance of familiar restaurant brands from Premier Inn sites, replaced by more standardised hotel-based food and drink offers.

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