Whitbread facts for kids
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Formerly
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Whitbread Holdings (2000–2001) |
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| Public limited company | |
| Traded as | LSE: WTB FTSE 100 Component |
| Industry | |
| Founded | 1742 in London, England |
| Founder | Samuel Whitbread |
| Headquarters | Houghton Regis, England, UK |
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Area served
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Key people
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| Revenue |  £2,625.2 million (2023) |
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Operating income
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£543.5 million (2023) |
| £278.8 million (2023) |
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Number of employees
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40,000 (2024) |
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Whitbread is a big British company that owns hotels and restaurants. Its main office is in Houghton Regis, England.
The company started as a place that made beer in 1742. By the 1780s, it had become the largest beer maker in the world!
Today, its biggest part is Premier Inn. This is the largest hotel brand in the UK, with more than 785 hotels and 72,000 rooms. Until 2019, Whitbread also owned Costa Coffee, but they sold it to The Coca-Cola Company. Whitbread also owns popular restaurant chains like Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, and Table Table.
Whitbread is listed on the London Stock Exchange, which means its shares can be bought and sold there. It's also part of the FTSE 100 Index, which lists the 100 biggest companies on the London Stock Exchange.
Contents
History
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How it Started
Whitbread began in 1742. A man named Samuel Whitbread teamed up with Godfrey and Thomas Shewell. They bought a small place that made beer in London. Later, in 1750, Samuel Whitbread and Thomas Shewell bought a bigger place called the King's Head brewery. They renamed it the Hind Brewery.
This new brewery focused on making a type of dark beer called porter. Whitbread became very good at making porter on a large scale. This happened when more people in the UK started drinking beer. By 1758, Whitbread was the biggest porter brewer in the UK. Samuel Whitbread was the main leader and bought out his partner's share in 1761.
By the 1780s, Whitbread was the largest brewery in the world. In 1796, they made 202,000 barrels of porter. After Samuel Whitbread Sr. passed away, his son, also named Samuel Whitbread, took over. The company officially became Whitbread & Co Ltd in 1799.
In the 1810s, Samuel Whitbread Jr. brought in new partners. By 1870, the company started selling bottled beers and kept growing. On July 24, 1889, Whitbread became a registered limited company.
Growing Through the Years (20th Century)
By 1905, the Chiswell Street brewery was at its biggest. The company made almost 700,000 barrels of beer each year. During the First World War, beer production went down.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Whitbread bought several other breweries and their pubs. The company also made new types of beer. They stopped making porter in 1940 because it wasn't as popular. Also, many of their pubs were damaged during the Second World War, especially during the Blitz.
Whitbread first started selling its shares on the London Stock Exchange in 1948. Over the next 30 years, Whitbread joined with many other regional breweries. This helped them become Britain's third-largest beer maker by 1971.
In 1971, Whitbread started the Whitbread Book Awards. The next year, they began sponsoring the Whitbread Round the World Race. This was a sailing race around the world held every three years. Whitbread sponsored this race until 2001. In the 1970s, they also bought companies that made spirits like whisky and gin.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Whitbread started to focus on other types of businesses. They invested in restaurants like Beefeater, Pizza Hut, and TGI Fridays. In the early 1990s, Whitbread had to sell almost 2,500 of its pubs due to new rules.
In 1996, Whitbread bought the Pelican Group, which owned many restaurants like Café Rouge. They also bought BrightReasons, which owned brands like Bella Pasta.
Modern Times (21st Century)
In 2001, Whitbread decided to sell all its breweries and beer-making businesses. They sold them to a company called Interbrew. You can still find some Whitbread-branded drinks, but other companies make them under a special agreement. In 2002, Whitbread sold its pubs and most of its restaurant groups. The old brewery building in London is now a place for events.
In 2005 and 2006, Whitbread moved its main offices to Luton and then to Dunstable. In 2006, they sold many of their Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants to another company.
In 2013, during a time when some meat products were found to contain horsemeat, Whitbread checked its own products. They found horsemeat in some items and promised to fix the problem right away.
In 2018, some of Whitbread's big investors suggested they should split up the company. They thought that selling off the Costa Coffee chain would make the company more valuable. So, on August 31, 2018, Whitbread announced that The Coca-Cola Company would buy Costa Coffee for a lot of money (£3.9 billion). This sale was completed in early 2019.
In September 2020, the company announced that they might have to reduce the number of staff. This was because fewer people were staying in hotels due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
What Whitbread Does Now
Whitbread's main businesses today are:
Premier Inn Hotels
Premier Inn is the UK's largest budget hotel chain. It has over 750 hotels across the country.
Table Table Restaurants
Table Table is a restaurant brand in the UK. These restaurants often started as converted Brewers Fayre locations. The name Table Table was officially launched in May 2008. There are about 100 Table Table restaurants in the UK.
Beefeater Restaurants
Beefeater restaurants started in 1974. They had a big update in the early 2000s. For a while, they were called "Beefeater Grill," but in 2014, they went back to "Beefeater." There are 140 Beefeater restaurants across the UK.
Brewers Fayre Pubs
Brewers Fayre is a pub and restaurant brand that began in 1979. These places are designed to feel like traditional local pubs but are also very family-friendly. There are about 145 Brewers Fayre pubs across the country.
Whitbread Inns
The Whitbread Inns brand of restaurants was created by Whitbread in 2014. By January 2016, there were 13 of these pubs, mostly in central and southern England.
What Whitbread Used to Do
Whitbread used to own or run many other businesses, including:
- Costa Coffee: This popular coffee chain was bought by Whitbread in 1995. It grew to have thousands of stores around the world. In 2018, Whitbread sold Costa Coffee to The Coca-Cola Company.
- Brewsters: This brand was created in 1999. It focused on families, and many of its locations were originally Brewers Fayre pubs.
- Taybarns: This was an all-you-can-eat American buffet-style restaurant. There were seven locations in England and Wales.
- Britvic: A big UK company that makes soft drinks like J2O, Robinson's, and Tango.
- Marriott hotels and clubs in the UK: Whitbread used to run these before selling them back to Marriott.
- TGI Friday's: Whitbread used to own the rights to run these American restaurants in the UK. TGI Friday's is known for its fun, American style and cocktails. Whitbread sold these rights in 2007.
- Pizza Hut UK: Whitbread used to own the UK Pizza Hut restaurants before selling them to the brand owner, Yum!.
- David Lloyd Leisure: Whitbread ran over 50 of these clubs in the UK and Ireland, which offer sports like tennis. Whitbread sold David Lloyd Leisure in 2007.
- Hogshead: A group of pubs in town centers.
- Threshers: A chain of shops that sold alcoholic drinks.
- Restaurants in Germany: Whitbread owned Churasco and Maredo restaurants in Germany, which they sold in 2005.
Images for kids
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Brewer's Fayre, Royal Quay, North Shields.
