Whitbread
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| Whitbread Plc | |
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| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1742 |
| Headquarters | Dunstable, Bedfordshire |
| Key people | Samuel Whitbread (Founder) |
| Area served | United Kingdom, India, Dubai, Republic of Ireland |
| Industry | Leisure Services and Hospitality |
| Products | Premier Travel Inn, Brewers Fayre, Beefeater, Costa Coffee, T.G.I. Friday's and David Lloyd Leisure. |
| Revenue |  £181.1m GBP 2006 |
| Employees | 49,848 ( 03/04/2006 ) 53,483 ( 03/01/2005 ) |
| 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 is a UK-based hospitality company, managing several leading brands in hotels, restaurants and health and fitness clubs, including Premier Travel Inn, Brewers Fayre, Beefeater, Costa, T.G.I. Friday's and David Lloyd Leisure. 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 250 Index. The company was originally 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] Whitbread’s Businesses
Today, the streamlined business, now Whitbread Group plc, has no brewing interests. It is a restaurants and leisure company, whose brands include the following ventures.
[edit] Premier Travel Inn
Whitbread is the largest hotel company in the UK, operating the budget hotel brand, Premier Travel Inn. With 479 hotels across the UK, Premier Travel Inn is twice as large as its nearest rival, Travelodge. Based on an average distance, around 75% of the UK population live within five miles of a Premier Travel Inn.
The UK has recently seen significant growth in the number of adults using branded budget hotels between 1999 and 2003: 3.03m to 5.66m - cumulative annual growth rate of 17% (BDRC). These hotels are being used by both leisure and business travellers.
[edit] Brewers Fayre
Brewers Fayre is one of the UK's largest pub-restaurant brands. The pubs are designed as a typical local, where guests can try pub fare in a family atmosphere. Many Brewers Fayre outlets also have a Brewsters Fun Factory (playzone) to keep children amused while adults have their meals.
Brewers Fayre sites are now usually only found adjacent to Premier Travel Inn hotels.
[edit] Beefeater
A similar style to the Brewers Fayre chain, but specialising more in grilled foods.
[edit] TGI Friday's
Whitbread currently hold the UK franchise rights to the large American restaurant chain TGI Friday's. These restaurants, known for their "over the top" American style, are decorated with collectable items, and often employ flamboyant bartenders to deliver cocktails. Since Whitbread first brought the brand to the UK in 1986, its Long Island Iced Tea cocktail alone accounts for more than 1.5 million of the 34 million cocktails served in the UK.
TGI Friday's is also noted for its good employment practices. The chain was ranked 15th overall in the FT's Best Workplace report, and rated the 4th most fun place to work in the UK.
[edit] Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee has over 400 coffee stores across the UK and is opening around 50 new outlets every year. Costa's success built on the Italian coffee expertise of the Costa brothers - Costa coffee is still made by hand rather than by the automated coffee machines used by major competitors. Costa is also expanding rapidly overseas. It operates more than 60 outlets in the Middle East through franchise partners, as well as growing businesses in India.
[edit] David Lloyd Leisure
There are 58 David Lloyd Leisure (DLL) clubs in the UK and Ireland, and the business has also expanded into Spain, The Netherlands and Belgium. As well as running commercial clubs, DLL also works with local communities, delivering tennis lessons to more than 10,000 children each week, as well as swimming lessons to more than 12,000 children.
Britain's biggest tennis operator, DLL has over 520 tennis courts (more than half indoor), 75 swimming pools (46 indoor) and over 8,000 individual fitness machines. DLL has also led the way in recent years with the introduction and development of fitness classes such as Pilates and 'spinning'.
DLL employs 4,500 specialist staff, including over 350 fitness instructors and 200 tennis coaches as well as beauty therapists and nutritionists.
At 100,000 sq ft, the typical David Lloyd Leisure club are above average size (70 per cent of UK clubs occupy less than 20,000 sq ft). The company has also successfully developed smaller (25,000 - 35,000 sq ft) clubs in more urban areas, which act as satellites for the larger clubs.
[edit] Touchbase
Touchbase is Whitbread's conferencing and meeting rooms brand. These are normally found in city centres and attached to Premier Travel Inns.
[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 Hofmeister, 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, but these are not produced by InBev, merely produced under licence by other producers. InBev controls the use of the Whitbread brand, and the horse's head logo, for use on beverages.
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 seek to distance themselves from their history.
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 and Pepsi.
- Whitbread Inns, standalone pubs with no restaurant attached.
- Marriott hotels and clubs in the UK, sold to brand owner Marriott Corporation.
- Pizza Hut UK, sold to brand owner Yum!.
In 2006, the decision was also taken to dispose of all the pub restaurants in the Brewers Fayre and Beefeater chains that were not attached to an adjoining Premier Travel Inn. This consisted of 239 sites across the UK, which were all bought by market rival Mitchells and Butlers.
However, 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.
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.
[edit] External links
Categories: Wikipedia articles needing style editing | Defunct brewery companies of the United Kingdom | Catering and food service companies of the United Kingdom | Hotel and leisure companies of the United Kingdom | Companies based in London | Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange | 1742 establishments
