Premier Inn owner to cut 3,800 jobs in its hotel restaurants and Brewer's Fayre and Beefeater branches

Premier Inn owner Whitbread has announced that, as part of its proposed new Five-Year Plan, it intends to become a pure-play hotel business focused on Premier Inn, the UK’s number one hotel brand, which is synonymous with quality and value.

This means that 3,800 jobs will be cut in its hotel restaurants and Brewer's Fayre and Beefeater branches.

A spokesman said: “This change will involve exiting all of our remaining branded restaurants, which trade under brands including Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, a number of which will be converted into approximately 600 additional Premier Inn rooms, with the remainder expected to be sold as going concerns.

“The proposed changes announced today build on the success of our Accelerating Growth Plan, announced in 2024, which involved the conversion of over 200 branded restaurants to additional rooms, and the creation of an integrated restaurant in each hotel.

“This format has proved highly popular with guests and under the proposal, it would be rolled out to all hotels where there is currently a branded restaurant.”

They continued: “We recognise the impact of this proposal on colleagues who work at the affected sites.

“As a business which recruits around 15,000 people every year, we expect to be able to retain a significant proportion of those affected and will be looking to redeploy as many of our impacted colleagues as possible.

“However, we do anticipate that the proposed changes, which are subject to consultation, would result in a reduction of around 3,800 roles of a total UK and Ireland workforce of around 30,000. We will do all we can to support those colleagues affected.”

The Free Press asked about the numbers affected at ther Donaster branches but were told : “Our proposal is still under consultation so there’s no further local detail I can offer at this stage. “