Whitbread, the owner of Premier Inn, has announced plans to cut approximately 3,800 jobs across the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of a new five-year strategy aimed at achieving £250 million in cost savings. The hospitality group cited cost pressures from business rates and national insurance contributions as key drivers for this move.
New five-year plan and cost-saving targets
The company's new five-year plan includes an increased cost-saving target and steps to reduce capital spending by more than £1 billion. Whitbread will sell off £1.5 billion worth of its freehold properties—hotels it owns outright—to fund future growth and increasingly shift to a leasehold model. Additionally, it will replace its 197 restaurants with an integrated food and drink model, which is deemed more efficient and preferred by hotel guests.
The group owns restaurant chains including Beefeater, Bar + Block, and Brewers Fayre. Whitbread stated that the plans to reduce its 30,000-strong workforce are subject to employee consultation, and it expects to retain a significant portion of affected employees through redeployment.
Previous restructuring and future expansion
This follows a previous restructuring plan launched in 2024, which resulted in around 1,500 job cuts. Despite the reductions, Whitbread still plans to increase the number of hotel rooms it operates to 96,000 by the 2031 financial year, up from approximately 86,600 currently.
Chief Executive Dominic Paul commented: “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.”
He added: “This plan will transform Whitbread into a higher-margin, higher-returning pure-play hotel business. We’re going to go further and faster to deliver a great experience for our guests and high-quality growth and returns for our shareholders.”
The announcement comes after the business reported a pre-tax profit of £298 million for the year to February 26, which was 19% lower than the previous year. Total revenues remained flat year-on-year at £2.9 billion, though UK sales edged up by 1%.
