Family favourite restaurant chain reveals first locations at risk of closing as 200 face the chop
A FAMILY favourite restaurant chain has revealed the first locations that have been marked for closure as 200 face permanent closure.
Whitbread recently revealed plans to slash its chain of branded restaurants across the UK in favour of building more hotel rooms.
The hotel and restaurant company has around 840 sites across the UK and owns brands including Premier Inn, Beefeater and Brewers Fayre.
It plans to convert 112 restaurants into hotel extensions while closing 126 "loss-making" venues, with 21 sales already having gone through.
Whitbread hopes the sales will be completed within the next two years.
If a site is losing a branded restaurant, a new integrated restaurant will be made within the hotel.
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The Sun can now reveal that Whitbread has announced proposals which could impact three sites. They are as follows:
- The Manor Farm Beefeater in Rainham, Kent
- The Bridge Barn Beefeater in Woking, Surrey
- The Acorn Beefeater in Burgess Hill, Sussex
Whitbread said the closures are subject to consultation, and a decision has not yet been made.
It is not yet clear if the sites will be converted into hotel rooms, or if they will be closed for good.
In a statement, Whitbread said: "We recognise that this will be unsettling for our team members and we are providing them with dedicated support.
"We are committed to working hard to enable as many as possible of our affected team members to stay with us by either transferring into new roles or by taking up other vacancies across the business more broadly through our existing recruitment activity."
The restaurants will continue to operate as usual while the consultation takes place.
Locals have taken to social media to share their sadness over the prospect of losing their local Beefeater.
Commenting on the potential loss of the Burgess Hill restaurant, one Facebook user said: "Really?? It’s always busy?"
Another tagged their friend and wrote: "You'll be devastated."
Which brands does Whitbread own?
Whitbread is a hospitality business and the owner of Premier Inn.
It has around 840 sites across the UK, including restaurants attached to its hotels and standalone venues.
Here is a full list of the brands that Whitbread owns:
- Premier Inn
- Hub by Premier Inn
- Zip by Premier Inn
- Beefeater
- Bar+Block
- Thyme
- Cookhouse & Pub
- Brewers Fayre
- Table Table
- Whitbread Inns
A third in Kent said: "Nothing left in the town to bother visiting"
And a fourth cried: "I was there tonight. Super staff and a lovely meal - I hope it stays open."
The move will leave Whitbread with 387 restaurants that are part of its hotels and 196 branded restaurants.
It's unclear exactly which other pubs and restaurants are earmarked for closure and where they are located.
The Sun has asked Whitbread for more information on the other locations and we will update this article once we hear back.
The group said the job cuts are still subject to consultation and come from its total UK workforce of 37,000 employees.
It said the move was part of a plan to “optimise” its food and drink offering to add more than 3,500 hotel rooms across its estate and increase “operational efficiencies”.
It follows reports that Whitbread was looking to speed up plans to sell hundreds of its pubs and restaurants.
The chain was said to have marked at least 250 of its 440 pubs and restaurants for sale, most of which are located close to Premier Inn hotels.
Earlier this year, The Sun revealed that over 7,000 pubs are expected to go bust in the next year.
Rising costs and fewer punters through the door has meant that four out of five pubs have seen their profits take a nosedive.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun's business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
What is happening to the hospitality industry?
Many Food and drink chains have been struggling in recently as the cost of living has led to fewer people spending on eating out.
Businesses had been struggling to bounce back after the pandemic, only to be hit with soaring energy bills and inflation.
Multiple chains have been affected, resulting in big-name brands like Wetherspoons and Frankie & Benny's closing branches.
Some chains have not survived, Byron Burger fell into administration last year, with owners saying it would result in the loss of over 200 jobs.
Pizza giant, Papa Johns is shutting down 43 of its stores soon.
Tasty, the owner of Wildwood, said it will shut sites as part of major restructuring plans.
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The brand plans to close 20 loss-making restaurants after a “challenging” start to the year.
Stonegate, has raised fears about its survival as it races to plug its debts.
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