​Whitbread Streamlines Restaurant Portfolio in £56m Sale

Whitbread, the owner of Premier Inn, has sold 51 of its branded restaurants and bars for £56 million. The decision forms part of a broader strategy to shift focus from its restaurant operations and expand its hotel portfolio.

Premier Inn by Peter McDermott, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Earlier this year, Whitbread announced plans to convert 112 branded restaurants into 3,500 new hotel rooms, alongside an exit from 126 branded restaurants entirely. This shift underscores the company’s drive to streamline operations and increase its footprint in the hospitality sector.

During the Annual Hospitality Conference, Simon Ewins, managing director of Whitbread, explained that some of the company’s restaurant operations had become a “distraction” to its core hotel management business.

The company’s half-year results revealed that planning applications had been submitted for over a third of the restaurants identified for conversion. Construction on these sites has already begun, with plans to fully operational the new rooms by the end of 2026.

Among the properties sold were restaurants operating under well-known brands such as Bar + Block, Brewers Fayre, and Beefeater. Whitbread is now replacing these with integrated food and beverage propositions on the ground floors of its hotels.

The company acknowledged a 7% decline in food and beverage sales, attributed to changes made within its branded restaurant segment. However, Whitbread reassured stakeholders that the majority of its hotels, supported by its 387 integrated restaurants and a portfolio of 196 higher-returning branded venues, are continuing business as usual.

Regarding its accommodation offerings, Whitbread reported an adjusted pre-tax profit of £340 million for the first half of the financial year. This was a slight dip compared to the £391 million recorded in the same period of the previous year. Occupancy rates remained robust, with London hotels averaging 81.5% and regional locations seeing even higher figures at 83.5%.

Brewers Fayre Restaurant by Stephen Middlemiss, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Premier Inn, the UK’s largest hotel chain with a 12% share of the total room supply, opened 780 new rooms during the period, including its first joint Premier Inn and ‘Hub by Premier Inn’ development in London’s Paddington. The company also closed 304 rooms as part of its ongoing efforts to optimise its estate.

Whitbread’s long-term goals include growing its UK and Ireland portfolio to 98,000 rooms by FY30, with an even more ambitious target of 125,000 rooms.

Dominic Paul, chief executive of Whitbread, expressed confidence in the company’s growth strategy. “In the UK, we have a clear pathway to extend our market-leading position further,” he said, citing the company’s strong performance since the pandemic and its competitive advantages in the market.

Whitbread remains focused on maintaining its momentum in the hotel sector while ensuring customer satisfaction stays high, as demonstrated by solid guest scores.