Whitbread
Formerly | Whitbread Holdings (2000–2001)[1] |
---|---|
Company type | Public limited company |
LSE: WTB FTSE 100 Component | |
Industry | |
Founded | 1742London, England | in
Founder | Samuel Whitbread |
Headquarters | Houghton Regis, England, UK |
Area served |
|
Key people |
|
Revenue | £2,625.2 million (2023)[2] |
£543.5 million (2023)[2] | |
£278.8 million (2023)[2] | |
Number of employees | 40,000 (2024)[3] |
Divisions |
|
Website | www |
Whitbread is a British multinational hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England.
The business was founded as a brewery in 1742, and had become the largest brewery in the world by the 1780s.[4]
Its largest division is currently Premier Inn, which is the largest hotel brand in the UK with over 785 hotels and 72,000 rooms. Until January 2019 it owned Costa Coffee but sold it to The Coca-Cola Company. Whitbread's brands include the restaurant chains Beefeater, Brewers Fayre and Table Table.[5]
Whitbread is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
History
Origins
The business was formed in 1742 when
While not the first to discover Porter production, Whitbread was the first to exploit it commercially on a large scale.[8] This coincided with an increase in beer consumption in the UK, following regulations to limit the sale of gin owing to the excesses of the Gin Craze.[8] By 1758 production at Chiswell street was 65,000 barrels and the firm had become the largest firm of Porter brewers in the UK.[8] From the outset, Whitbread was the leading financial partner, and solely responsible for management, and in 1761, Whitbread acquired Shewell's share of the business for £30,000.[6]
By the 1780s Whitbread had become the largest brewery in the world.[9][4] In 1796 the company produced 202,000 barrels of porter.[6] The firm struggled after the death of Samuel Whitbread Sr, and saw ownership transfer to his son, also called Samuel Whitbread.[9] The company adopted the name Whitbread & Co Ltd in 1799.[10]
By the 1810s, Samuel Whitbread Jnr had brought in several new investment partners including his cousin Jacob Whitbread and the Master Brewer John Martineau (four of his descendants would later sit on the board of Whitbread, including John Edmund Martineau).[11] In 1812, the company merged with the Martineau Brewery holdings and by 1816, leadership was shared between William Henry Whitbread (Samuel Whitbread Jnrs son) and John Martineau, who died in an industrial accident in a yeast vat in the brewery in 1834.[12] By 1870, the company had begun producing bottled beers for sale and continued to expand production. On 24th July 1889, the company become a registered limited liability company.[13]
20th century
By 1905, the Chiswell Street brewery reached its largest extent and annual production throughout the company breweries had reached nearly 700,000 barrels.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the company bought out several other brewers, including the Forest Hill Brewery and its pubs, and later the Kent Brewery Frederick Leney & Sons, with 130 of its pubs.
The company was first listed on the
In 1971, Whitbread inaugurated the
Whitbread acquired a 20% stake in
The company diversified into other hospitality holdings and invested in new ventures in the 1980s and 1990s, including Beefeater, Pizza Hut, Berni Inns, Heineken Steak Bars and TGI Fridays.
In July 1996, Whitbread purchased the Pelican Group (comprising 110 restaurants under the Dôme, Mamma Amalfi and, primarily,
21st century
In 2001, Whitbread decided to sell all its breweries and brewing interests (Whitbread Beer Company) to Interbrew, now known as
In 2005, it moved its core operations from
In 2013, as part of the 2013 horse meat scandal, DNA tests ordered by Whitbread revealed that horsemeat was present in some meat products sold in outlets owned by the company, at the time Britain's biggest hotel group.[39][40] On 26 February 2013 Whitbread vowed to remedy the unacceptable situation.[41]
In 2018, Whitbread faced pressure from two of its largest shareholders, hedge fund Sachem Head and activist group Elliott Advisers, to break itself up by splitting off the Costa Coffee chain, the theory being the individual businesses would be worth up to 40% more than the current market capital value.[42] On 25 April 2018, Whitbread announced its intention to demerge Costa.[43] On 31 August 2018, it announced that The Coca-Cola Company had agreed to buy Costa Coffee for £3.9bn.[44]
In September 2020, the company announced that they would be cutting jobs, warning that 6,000 staff could lose employment. The company blamed the cuts on a slump in hotel guest numbers since the beginning of the UK's lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[45]
Current operations
Whitbread's principal current operations are:
Premier Inn
Premier Inn is the UK's largest budget hotel chain, with over 750 hotels.[46]
Table Table
Table Table is a UK restaurant brand. They started as converted Brewers Fayre restaurants. The brand was originally set up in 2006 unnamed; the name Table Table was launched in May 2008. There are around 100 sites in the UK.[47]
Beefeater
Beefeater was launched in 1974. The chain underwent a huge revamp in the early 2000s. It then proceeded to change its name to "Beefeater Grill" for a period but in 2014 reverted to "Beefeater". Beefeater has 140 restaurants across the UK.[48]
Brewers Fayre
Brewers Fayre is a pub-restaurant brand which was created in 1979. The pubs are designed to look and feel like traditional local pubs but with a particularly strong family presence. There are around 145 pubs across the country.[49]
Whitbread Inns
The Whitbread Inns brand of restaurants was created by Whitbread in 2014. In January 2016 there were 13 pubs (all of which were Table Table) across central and southern England.[50]
Former operations
Whitbread's former operations include:
- Costa Coffee, was founded in London in 1971 by the brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. Acquired by Whitbread in 1995, it had since grown to over 2,861 stores across 30 countries.[51] In August 2018, Whitbread announced that it would sell Costa Coffee to The Coca-Cola Company in a deal worth £3.9bn. The acquisition was completed on 3 January 2019 following a $4.9 billion transaction, with approval from regulatory authorities in the EU and China.[52][53]
- Brewsters, a brand created in 1999. The emphasis was on families and most sites had been built as Brewers Fayre, this was to give Brewers Fayre a more adult feel.[54]
- Taybarns, an all-you-can-eat American buffet-style restaurant.[55] There were six sites in England and one (the very first site at Swansea) in Wales.[56]
- 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.[57]
- Marriott hotels and clubs in the UK, sold to brand owner Marriott Corporation.[58]
- Yum![60]
- David Lloyd Leisure – Whitbread ran 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 4 July 2007, Whitbread announced that it had conditionally agreed to sell the David Lloyd Leisure chain to Versailles Bidco Limited for £925 million. Whitbread will initially use the proceeds from its sale to pay off debt.[61]
- Hogshead, a group of town-centre pubs, similar to Wetherspoons, became part of the Laurel Pub Company in 2001.[62]
- off licences.[63]
- Germany: Churasco, owned since 1990, and Maredo, owned since 1994; in 1999 the Churasco restaurants had been transformed into Maredo-branded ones; Maredo was sold in 2005.[64]
References
- ^ "WHITBREAD PLC overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". Companies House. 1 December 2000. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
- ^ a b c "Annual Results 2022/23" (PDF). Whitbread PLC. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
- ^ "Whitbread is a leading hospitality business". Whitbread. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
- ^ ISBN 978-0907383369.
- ^ "Our Brands". Whitbread PLC. Archived from the original on 27 October 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39057. Retrieved 31 January 2015. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
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- ^ ISBN 978-0907383369.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-57607-833-4.
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- ISBN 978-0907383369.
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- ^ ISBN 978-0907383369.
- ^ "Shut up about Barclay Perkins: Kidd beers in early 1917". Shut up about Barclay Perkins. 4 January 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
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- ^ Pattinson, Ron (30 October 2019). "Let's Brew Wednesday - 1940 Whitbread Porter". Shut Up About Barclay Perkins. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
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- ISBN 9781576078334. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
- ^ (CBA-Past-Winners-2015-Version.pdf) Archived 15 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Costa Book Awards. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
- ^ "Drastic early days of broken boats and high drama in Whitbread Round the World Race". Yachting World. 12 November 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-0907383369.
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- ^ Whitbread buys £6m TVS stake. By Derek Harris Commercial Editor. The Times, Thursday, 12 Apr 1984; pg. 18
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- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
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- ^ "Whitbread PLC History". Funding Universe. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
- ^ "BrightReasons Group". Glasgow Herald. 28 November 1996. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
- ^ "Enterprise Inns buys 1,860 pubs to become UK's top landlord | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET". 18 September 2008. Archived from the original on 18 September 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
- ^ "Whitbread sells restaurant groups". Evening Standard. 31 May 2002. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
- ^ Whitbread sells historic brewery Archived 12 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Whitbread – market intelligence". Ukbusinesspark.co.uk. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
- ^ "Whitbread sells group headquarters". Business Milton Keynes. 1 October 2006. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
- ^ "Business | Beefeater sites bought by M&B". BBC News. 21 July 2006. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
- ^ "BBC News – Horsemeat scandal: Supermarkets 'share anger and outrage'". Bbc.co.uk. 15 February 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
- ^ "Compass and Whitbread caught up in horse meat scandal". Telegraph.co.uk. Reuters. 15 February 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
- ^ "Whitbread makes food pledge after horsemeat scandal". The Guardian. 26 February 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
- ^ "Business Sale Report – Will Costa Coffee chain be up for sale soon". business-sale.com. 22 April 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
- ^ "Whitbread Group Structure Update". whitbread.co.uk. 25 April 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- ^ "Coca-Cola to buy Costa chain for £3.9bn". BBC News. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
- ^ "Whitbread to cut 6,000 jobs as hotel demand slumps". BBC News. 22 September 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
- ^ "Premier Inn opens 600th UK hotel". Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "Table Table". Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "Beefeater". Archived from the original on 31 January 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "Brewers Fayre". Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "Whitbread Inns". Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ^ "Catering & Hospitality News". Archived from the original on 18 April 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
- ^ "The Coca-Cola Company Completes Acquisition of Costa from Whitbread PLC". www.businesswire.com. 3 January 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
- ^ beveragedaily.com (3 January 2019). "Coca-Cola completes Costa acquisition: 'Our vision is to use Costa's platform to expand in the growing coffee category'". beveragedaily.com. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
- ^ "Brewster's Restaurants - Break From The Old Routine by Oui 3". YouTube. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021.
- ^ "Rise of the all-you-can-eat restaurant". newsvote.bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
- ^ "Taybarns". Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "Britvic IPO to value drinks group at up to £537m". FT.com. 25 November 2005. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "When Alan Parker moved Whitbread from beer to hotels no-one got it, they do now". The Telegraph. 23 October 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ Bill, Tom (17 January 2007). "Whitbread sells TGI Friday's to joint venture – Caterer and Hotelkeeper". Caterersearch.com. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
- ^ "Pizza Hut restaurants sold to investment group". The Guardian. 9 November 2012. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "Sale of David Lloyd Leisure". Whitbread plc. 4 June 2007. URL accessed 4 June 2007. Archived 29 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Luminar eyes Hogshead pubs deal". The Telegraph. 15 April 2001. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "Former owners Punch Taverns and Whitbread face Threshers liability". The Telegraph. 16 November 2009. Archived from the original on 19 November 2009. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ^ "Milestones". Maredo. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2015.