A MAJOR hospitality chain is looking to speed up plans to sell hundreds of pubs and restaurants.
Whitbread is reportedly looking to sell hundreds of Beefeater and Brewers Table pubs and restaurants.
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The hospitality business could be taken over by the owner of Harvester and Toby Carvery.
Mitchells & Butlers is said to be tipped as the frontrunner to buy Whitbread’s loss-making pubs, The Times reports.
But other rivals including Greene King, Heineken and Marston’s and Punch have also been approached about the sell-off.
The chain is believed to have marked at least 250 of its 440 pubs and restaurants for sale, most of which are located close to Premier Inn hotels according to the report.
However, it’s unclear exactly where the pubs and restaurants earmarked for sale are located.
Any potential sale won’t mean that the pubs and restaurants will close for good.
Instead, they will continue operating under new ownership,
We’ve contacted Whitbread to confirm the update.
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It comes after reports in May highlighted that the hospitality giant was understood to be weighing up its options.
And bosses at the firm warned sales at the restaurants were slumping in its March annual report.
It noted that there was an “increasing divergence of performance of the hotel business and the food and beverage business.”
Whitbread said this could negatively impact the premium Premier Inn charge for their rooms in comparison to its rivals.
Many of the company’s pubs and restaurants operate under a co-location arrangement with Premier Inn branches.
The establishments are either situated inside or next to hotels and often serve breakfast and food on behalf of its sister company.
Whitbread’s accommodation group sales soared by 27% in the year to March, a healthy jump from the previous 12 months.
But food and beverage sales only grew by a measly 4% in contrast.
The publication originally reported that only a “small part” of Whitbread‘s food and drink operations were at risk.
But the sale of hundreds of pubs and restaurants could mark Whitbread’s first major move since it struck a deal with Coca-Cola in 2018 to sell Costa Coffee for £3.9billion.
But Whitbread isn’t the only company closing restaurants.
The Restaurant Group (TRG), which owns Frankie and Benny’s, previously announced plans to close 18 loss-making restaurants this year.
Prezzo, the Italian restaurant chain is closing 46 branches after being hit hard by soaring energy and food costs.
In December 2022, pub chain Wetherspoons announced it would be closing a total of 39 pubs after being hit by soaring inflation.
Plus burger chain Byron Burger fell into administration, immediately closing nine of its branches.
