Whitbread, the owner of Premier Inn and Beefeater, intends to open 200 new hotels in the next four to five years, BigHospitality understands.
Patrick Dempsey, managing director of hotels and restaurants at the group, told delegates at M&C Report’s UK Pub Retail Summit that 50 per cent of the new hotels would have a co-located pub restaurant site.
He also explained that the company had a culture of trying to make small incremental improvements to its brands – which include Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Taybarns – and this had contributed to its success in the sector.
Dempsey said: “We haven’t tried to be too clever. Its just about doing things consistently.”
Whitbread has achieved 3.9% like for like sales growth in its pub restaurants in the past six months.
Dempsey said that it had also seen three years of positive like for like sales growth in Beefeater and all brands had seen +6 per cent improvement in the amount of covers.
Earlier in the day at the UK Pub Retail Summit, Simon Ewins, the operation’s director of Taybarns, Whitbread’s all-you-can-eat offer, had admitted the group was conducting a wholesale review of its pub restaurants brands.
It is thought that the review has already prompted the introduction of all-you-can-eat offer to some Brewers Fayre.
Martyn Leek is news editor of BigHospitality's sister publication M&C Report.