Whitbread


Whitbread plc 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.
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.
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 Samuel Whitbread formed a partnership with Godfrey and Thomas Shewell and acquired a small brewery at the junction of Old Street and Upper Whitecross Street and another brewhouse for pale and amber beers in Brick Lane, Spitalfields. Godfrey Shewell withdrew from the partnership as Thomas Shewell and Samuel Whitbread bought the large site of the derelict King's Head brewery in Chiswell Street in 1750. The new brewery was for the production of porter, and was renamed the Hind Brewery after the Whitbread family coat of arms.
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. It was the largest brewery in the world by the 1780s. In 1796 the company produced 202,000 barrels of porter. The firm struggled after the death of Samuel Whitbread Sr, and saw ownership transfer to his son, also called Samuel Whitbread. The company adopted the name Whitbread & Co Ltd in 1799.

20th century

Whitbread brewed over 575,000 barrels in 1917.
Whitbread ended regular production of porter in 1940 due to its declining popularity and a need to rationalise its product range following war damage to its brewery sites.
The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1948. Between 1961 and 1971, Whitbread's output increased from 46 to 160 million imperial gallons and it became Britain's third-largest brewer by output. In 1972, Whitbread became the initiating sponsor of the Whitbread Round the World Race, a sailing yacht race around the world held every three years. Whitbread sponsored the race until 2001.
Whitbread acquired a 20% stake in TVS for £6.5M from European ferries in April 1984. Whitbread sold its liquor division to Allied Lyons in 1989.
In July 1996, Whitbread purchased the Pelican Group for £133m, and in November 1996, Whitbread acquired the restaurant group BrightReasons for £46m.

21st century

Whitbread decided in 2001 to sell all its breweries and brewing interests 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, but rather under licence by other producers. InBev controls the use of the Whitbread brand, and the hind's head logo, for use on beverages. In 2002 Whitbread sold its pub estate, known as the Laurel Pub Company, to Enterprise Inns, and sold its Pelican and BrightReasons restaurant groups for £25m to Tragus Holdings. The Whitbread & Co brewery building at 52 Chiswell Street in London still survives, although beer ceased to be brewed there in 1976 and it is now a conference and events venue. Still named "The Brewery", it was part of the Earls Court and Olympia Group from 2005 to 2012, when it was subsequently sold to a private investor.
In 2005, it moved its core operations from CityPoint in central London, to Oakley House in Luton, and then, in 2006, to larger offices at Whitbread Court in Dunstable. In 2006, it went on to sell 239 of its 271 Beefeater sites to Mitchells & Butlers.
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. On 26 February 2013 Whitbread vowed to remedy the unacceptable situation.
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. On 25 April 2018, Whitbread announced its intention to demerge Costa. However, on 31 August 2018, it was announced that Coca-Cola had agreed to acquire Costa Coffee from Whitbread for £3.9bn.

Current operations

Whitbread's principal current operations are:

Premier Inn

Premier Inn is the UK's largest budget hotel chain, with over 750 hotels.

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.

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 2015 reverted to just "Beefeater". Beefeater has 140 restaurants across the UK.

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.

Whitbread Inns

The Whitbread Inns brand of restaurants was created by Whitbread in 2014. In January 2016 there were 13 pubs across central and southern England.

Former operations

Whitbread's former operations include: