Whitbread, the owner of Premier Inn, has announced plans to cut approximately 3,800 jobs across the UK and Ireland as part of a new five-year strategy to reduce costs and overhaul its restaurant operations. The hospitality group said the move is driven by rising employment costs and business rates, which prompted a detailed review of the business.
The core of the overhaul involves converting all 197 remaining branded restaurants into more efficient hotel-integrated food and drink offerings. Whitbread stated that the job cuts are subject to employee consultation, and it expects to retain a significant proportion of affected staff through redeployment. The group's workforce currently stands at around 30,000.
The five-year plan aims to achieve £250 million in cost savings, alongside steps to reduce capital spending by more than £1 billion. Whitbread had already begun converting underperforming restaurants into hotel rooms, but pressure from activist investor Corvex Management led to a further review of the strategy.
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.'
The announcement came alongside full-year results for the year to 26 February 2026, which showed revenue broadly flat at £2.92 billion and adjusted pre-tax profit steady at £483 million. Whitbread has also reportedly agreed to sell 51 branded restaurant sites for £50 million, with agreements on a further 60 sites.
This follows similar cuts a year ago, when Whitbread announced plans to reduce its restaurant chain by more than 200 and cut around 1,500 jobs. The group's restaurant brands include Brewers Fayre, Beefeater, Bar+Block, Cookhouse & Pub, Hub, Thyme, Table Table, and Whitbread Inns.
