Premier Inn owner Whitbread to cut 1,500 jobs
Premier Inn owner Whitbread is to cut 1,500 jobs as it closes restaurants and expands its hotel business.
It plans to cut its number of branded restaurants by more than 200 in favour of building more hotel rooms.
The job cuts, which are subject to consultation, will come from a total UK workforce of 37,000 employees.
The group's restaurant brands including Brewers Fayre and Beefeater.
It plans to sell 126 of its less profitable restaurants, with 21 sales already having been agreed.
It will also close 112 restaurants and convert the space into new hotel rooms.
Whitbread said the changes would add more than 3,500 hotel rooms across its estate.
Dominic Paul, Whitbread chief executive, said: "We recognise that our transition will impact some of our team members so we will be providing support throughout this process and we are committed to working hard to enable as many as possible of those affected to remain with us."
Whitbread said it would try to find "alternative opportunities" for affected staff "wherever possible" through new jobs created by its plans and through existing recruitment.
The cuts come after Whitbread's pre-tax profit rose 21% to £452m for the year to 29 February.
It said the 112 branded restaurants it plans to turn into hotel rooms made a loss of £19m in the year, while the 126 restaurants it is selling made a loss of £9m.
They were hit by fewer visits from non-hotel guests, Whitbread said.
The cuts will leave it with 196 branded restaurants, and 387 restaurants that are unbranded and part of the hotel.
-bbc
