Dunstable based owner of Premier Inn and Beefeater announces plans to cut nearly 4,000 jobs
Dunstable based Whitbread, which owns Premier Inn and Beefeater says tax rises are to blame for 3,800 planned job cuts, announced today.
It says the move is part of a new five-year strategy to reduce costs and is a result of "significant cost increases in the form of business rates and National Insurance".
The company further announced its future business model will focus on Premier Inn, the country’s biggest hotel brand with more than 850 branches across the UK and Ireland.
Whitbread, which also owns food brands Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Bar and Block, Cookhouse and Pub, Thyme bar and grill and Table Table also announced plans to sell and then lease back £1.5bn of its properties.
The company owns eight Premier Inn hotels across Bedfordshire, with three Beefeater restaurants and one Brewers Fayre just off the A421 Bedford.
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.
“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.
“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. 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 confirmed job cuts will be subject to consultation, with efforts being made to move staff into alternative roles.
"We expect to retain a significant proportion of those affected and will be looking to redeploy as many of our impacted colleagues as possible," a company update stated.
About 15,000 people are hired a year, the statement added.
Unlike many hoteliers the company owns about half the hotels it operates, with Lenny Henry famously a former face of the brand.
Whitbread’s head office is located at Whitbread Court, Houghton Hall Business Park, Porz Avenue, Houghton Regis, Dunstable.