Whitbread to close Brewers Fayre brand in strategic shift

Whitbread is closing its Brewers Fayre restaurant brand as part of a strategic shift to focus on its Premier Inn hotel business. The company aims to transform into a higher-margin, pure-play hotel business, a move intended to generate £250 million in cost savings over five years. This restructuring includes the closure of 197 Brewers Fayre locations and 106 Beefeater restaurants.

To mitigate the impact, Whitbread has reached a conditional agreement to sell 53 of these branded sites to Queensway Inns. Queensway Inns intends to operate these locations as going concerns, which could see approximately 900 team members transfer to the new ownership. One such site, The Old Nelson in Stroud, is scheduled to close under its current branding on September 7 but is expected to continue operating under new ownership.

Whitbread Chief Executive Dominic Paul stated the decision follows significant cost increases in business rates and national insurance. The company plans to expand its hotel capacity to 96,000 rooms by the 2031 financial year.