Whitbread
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| Whitbread Plc | |
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| Type | Public (LSE: WTB) |
| Founded | 1742 |
| Headquarters | Dunstable, England, UK |
| Area served | United Kingdom, India, Dubai, Republic of Ireland |
| Key people | Samuel Whitbread (Founder) |
| Industry | Leisure Services and Hospitality |
| Products | Premier Inn, Brewers Fayre, Beefeater, Costa Coffee |
| Revenue | £1,411 million (2007) |
| Operating income | £217 million (2007) |
| Net income | £229 million (2007) |
| Employees | 31,703 (2007) |
| Subsidiaries | Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants (WHR) |
| Website | http://www.whitbread.co.uk/ |
- This article is about the Whitbread company. For the sailing race see Volvo Ocean Race. For the book awards, see Costa Book Awards (formerly the Whitbread Book Awards).
Whitbread Group plc (LSE: WTB) is a UK-based hospitality company, managing several popular brands in hotels, restaurants and health and fitness clubs, including Premier Inn, Table Table, Brewers Fayre, Taybarns, Beefeater and Costa Coffee. The company’s headquarters are based in Dunstable, Bedfordshire and it is listed on the London Stock Exchange, where it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The company was founded as a brewery by Samuel Whitbread and Thomas Shewell in 1742 but has since halted all interests in brewing.
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[edit] History
Whitbread was set up by Samuel Whitbread who established a partnership with Thomas Shewell in 1742, taking on the name Whitbread & Co Ltd in 1799. In 1750 Samuel Whitbread moved his brewing operations to premises in Chiswell Street on the eastern rim of Georgian London, establishing the first purpose-built mass-production brewery in Britain.
Over the next 200 years Whitbread & Co introduced many brands to the UK market, such as Stella Artois and Heineken, alongside its own brands, which grew in popularity in the second half of the 20th century, before declining in the 1990s as people migrated to more international brands such as Fosters and Budweiser.
After a long history of brewing, the company, now known as Whitbread Group Plc decided in 2001 to sell all its breweries and brewing interests (Whitbread Brewing Company) to Interbrew, now known as InBev. Whitbread-branded alcoholic beverages are still available in the UK, such as canned Whitbread bitter, but these are not produced by InBev, merely produced under licence by other producers. InBev controls the use of the Whitbread brand, and the hind's head logo, for use on beverages. Its pub estate became known as the Laurel Pub Company.
Today, the streamlined Whitbread business has no brewing interests and has moved into the service and leisure sector.
Echoing this shift in business focus, the Whitbread & Co brewery building at 52 Chiswell Street, London still survives, but is now used as a conference and events venue. Beer was last brewed at the site in April 1976. The site itself was only recently sold by Whitbread Group plc to an investment firm as the company looks to return value to its shareholders. This decision has been seen by some in the company as "selling the family silver", as Whitbread sought to distance itself from its history.
Whitbread has recently been hit hard by the global economic slowdown, and has looked to cut costs, as sales growth slows at some of its brands. It recently moved its core operations from Citypoint in central London to Oakley House in Luton, and then in 2006 to smaller offices at Whitbread Court in Dunstable (previously used by the now defunct Whitbread Restaurants Company) in a bid to save money. It also announced a major restructuring of the company and its management in a bid to stem the decline in sales. On 16 December 2005, the company was ejected from the FTSE 100, as its value had dropped below the threshold for entry, but later re-entered the 100 Index.
In 1971, the company launched the Whitbread Literary Awards, but in 2005 Whitbread changed its sponsorship to support the Costa Coffee brand, as Whitbread was no longer a customer-facing brand, merely a holding company for the group, hence the new name "Costa Book Awards".
[edit] Whitbread’s businesses
Whitbread's brands include the following:
[edit] Premier Inn
Premier Inn is the UK's largest hotel chain, with over 500 hotels in the United Kingdom, plus Premier Inns in Eire and, from April 2008, in Dubai. Premier Inn recently launched a new television advertising campaign after its re-launch from "Premier Travel Inn", featuring an advert starring Black Country comedian Lenny Henry.
[edit] Beefeater
Beefeater was launched in 1970 and serves millions of guests each year. The chain underwent a huge revamp in the early 2000s and has just launched a new advertising campaign in the Central UK region. Beefeater has 131 houses across the UK; most have a Premier Inn hotel located next door.
[edit] Brewers Fayre
Brewers Fayre is a pub-restaurant brand. The pubs are designed to look and feel like traditional local pubs but with a particularly strong family presence. The division is currently in the process of a regeneration. This will see the demise of the Brewers Fayre brand in favour of a group of similar but independent unbranded pub-restaurants.
[edit] Table Table
Table Table is a new, more upmarket, stylish restaurant brand being applied to former Brewers Fayre sites (eg: Apple Cart in Abingdon), some former Beefeater sites (eg: the Halfway House in Dunstable) and new builds such as the Frome Flyer in Somerset. The Table Table official menu was launched on 14 May 2008.
[edit] Taybarns
Taybarns is an all-you-can-eat buffet-style restaurant being created at some former Brewers Fayre sites (eg: Swansea). Further sites are planned to open during 2008. A second site is lined up for Coventry. Pub industry managers have been turning up in their droves in Swansea to check-out whether this is the next big thing. Some reckon it may be selling 8,000 meals a week, with total turnover in excess of £50,000 a week
[edit] Costa Coffee
Whitbread operates more than 600 Costa Coffee outlets across the UK. The chain also operates in the Middle East, Pakistan and India through franchise partners, and in China through a joint venture agreement. Whitbread plans for more Costa outlets to be operated outside the UK than in its home market by 2012.
[edit] Touchbase
Touchbase is Whitbread's conferencing and meeting rooms brand. These are normally found in city centres and attached to Premier Inns.
[edit] Former Brands
Whitbread has recently offloaded some of its brands and licensed franchises in an effort to streamline the business:
- Britvic, a large UK manufacturer of soft drinks, producing brands such as J2O, Robinson's and Tango as well as Pepsi in the UK and Ireland.
- Whitbread Inns, standalone pubs with no restaurant attached.
- Marriott hotels and clubs in the UK, sold to brand owner Marriott Corporation.
- TGI Friday's, a chain of franchised American theme restaurants, sold to brand owner. (see below)
- Pizza Hut UK, sold to brand owner Yum!.
- David Lloyd Leisure health clubs sold to Versailles Bidco Limited. (see below)
- Hogshead, a group of town-centre pubs, similar to Wetherspoons, became part of the Laurel Pub Company.
- Threshers, a chain of off licences.
[edit] TGI Friday's
Whitbread originally held the UK franchise rights to the American restaurant chain TGI Friday's. The restaurants are known for their "over the top" American style and are popular with teenagers for birthday parties. It is also noted for its cocktails including a top-selling Long Island Iced Tea. The Whitbread website claims: "The highly popular Long Island Iced Tea cocktail alone accounts for more than 1.5 million of 34 million cocktails served in the UK since Whitbread first brought the brand to the UK in 1986".
The chain was ranked 15th overall in the FT's annual Best Workplace report, and ranked fourth as the most fun place to work in the UK.
On 17 January 2007 Whitbread announced that the franchise rights for TGI Friday's were being sold to a joint venture between Carlson Restaurants Worldwide Inc and ABN AMRO Capital for £70.4m.
[edit] David Lloyd Leisure
Whitbread run more than 50 David Lloyd Leisure (DLL) clubs in the UK and Ireland with a further number in Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. DLL is Britain's biggest tennis operator and manages more than 500 tennis courts. On 4th July 2007, Whitbread announced that it had conditionally agreed to sell the David Lloyd Leisure chain to Versailles Bidco Limited for £925million. Whitbread will initially use the proceeds from its sale to pay off debt.[1]
Following the success of the management action taken in DLL over the last eighteen months and a review of the health club market, we have decided that this sale represents excellent value for our shareholders. Whitbread is now well placed to deliver the ambitious growth plans for its hotels, restaurants and coffee shops.
—Alan Parker, CEO, Whitbread plc
In 2006, the decision was taken to dispose of most of the pub restaurants in the Brewers Fayre and Beefeater (restaurant) chains that were not attached to a Premier Inn. This consisted of 239 sites across the UK, which were all bought by market rival Mitchells and Butlers. Some exceptions apply however, such as The Mitre in Oxford, Southfields in Bolton, the Masons Arms in Thornbury, and the White Hart Beefeater at Godstone. These sites have been retained as they are either in an area with a major throughput of customers in a high profile location or have potential to be developed as Premier Inns. The Flying Horse in Clophill has also remained a singular Beefeater pub/restaurant as it has been places up for possible re-development.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Whitbread plc website
- the Brewery - London events venue
- Yahoo profile
- Funding Universe History of Whitbread PLC
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