Whitbread PLC is a British multinational hotel, coffee shop and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. The company has its origins in brewing.
Its largest division is Premier Inn, which is the largest hotel brand in the UK with over 750 hotels and 65,000 rooms. Its Costa Coffee chain has 3,401 shops across 31 countries and is the world's second-largest international coffee shop chain. Its other 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.
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History
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.
Whitbread brewed over 575,000 barrels in 1917.
The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1948. Between 1961 and 1971, Whitbread's output increased from 2.1 to 7.4 million hectolitres and it became Britain's third-largest brewer by output. In 1972, Whitbread became the initiating sponsor of the Whitbread Round the World Race (now called the Volvo Ocean 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 (including Beefeater Gin) to Allied Lyons in 1989. Whitbread decided in 2001 to sell all its breweries and brewing interests (Whitbread Beer 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. In 2002 Whitbread sold its pub estate, known as the Laurel Pub Company, to Enterprise Inns. 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, where 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 January 2010, Whitbread introduced a new corporate logo, and replaced the tagline "welcome with a smile" with "Eat, Sleep and Drink".
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 Elliot 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.
Maps Whitbread
Current operations
Whitbread's principal current operations are:
Premier Inn
Premier Inn is the UK's largest budget hotel chain, with over 750 hotels.
Costa Coffee
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 has since grown to over 2,861 stores across 30 countries. By the end of 2010, the company had overtaken Starbucks in the UK, reaching a 37.6% market share measured by revenues. The business has 2,300 UK restaurants, over 6,000 Costa Express vending facilities and a further 1,334 outlets overseas.
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 (all of which were Table Table) across central and southern England.
Former operations
Whitbread's former operations include:
- Brewster's, 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. All sites had multi level play areas (The Fun Factory) and an outdoor children's play area. The brand was phased out during 2005 with all sites returned to Brewers Fayre, however, all sites kept their indoor Fun Factories.
- Taybarns, an all-you-can-eat American buffet-style restaurant. There were six sites in England and one (the very first site at Swansea) in Wales.
- 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.
- Marriott hotels and clubs in the UK, sold to brand owner Marriott Corporation.
- 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. 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.
- Pizza Hut UK, sold to brand owner Yum!
- 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.
- Hogshead, a group of town-centre pubs, similar to Wetherspoons, became part of the Laurel Pub Company in 2001.
- Threshers, a chain of off licences.
- 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.
References
External links
- Whitbread plc website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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