Premier Inn owner Whitbread has announced plans to cut around 3,800 jobs in the UK and Ireland as part of a new five-year strategy to reduce costs and overhaul its restaurants. The hospitality giant said it will replace its remaining 197 branded restaurants with hotel-integrated food and beverage offerings, which it said was more efficient and preferred by hotel guests.
Whitbread said the plans to reduce its 30,000-strong workforce were subject to employee consultation, and that it expects to retain a significant proportion of those affected through redeployment. The company also confirmed it intends to become a “pure-play” hotel business focused on Premier Inn, exiting all of its remaining branded restaurant chains, including Beefeater and Brewers Fayre. Some sites will be converted into around 600 new hotel rooms, while others are expected to be sold. The move comes as Whitbread battles rising costs after the UK’s latest budget piled pressure on its finances, leaving the company scrambling to protect profits and boost margins.
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 is reported to be targeting £2bn in free cash flow by 2031 through a major shake-up, including recycling £1.5bn of property and cutting capital spending by over £1bn.
The move will reduce its freehold mix to 30%-40% from around 50%, bringing it closer to rivals like Hilton and Marriott International, which own fewer of their sites.
Bosses have already begun converting underperforming restaurant sites into hotel rooms in a bid to drive returns, with the latest overhaul marking a major escalation of those efforts.
Chief executive Dominic Paul said: “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.
“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 said the move will reduce adjusted pre-tax profit by £10 million this financial year as it transitions sites in the second half of FY27.