Whitbread creates 3,000 catering jobs
Whitbread is planning a massive £300m expansion programme in the next year to build its share of the catering market. In the process it will be creating 3,000 jobs.
Wess van Riemsdijk, managing director of its managed pub division, Whitbread Inns, said: "Our food sales have seen huge growth in the past three years, to a quarter of pub turnover."
As part of the drive into food, over the next two years 150 pubs will start featuring a new Berni menu which has been on trial in 15 pubs for the past six months.
The 75 new pubs and 300 refurbishment projects planned this year include new concepts such as the Peppers café bar chain. Five more café bars will join the two existing outlets.
In addition, there is the American theme sports bar, Hotshots. There are 20 at present in community pubs with another 100 planned.
Capital expenditure in the year to 25 February across the entire Whitbread group went up from £194m to £292m. The inns division swallowed £103.5m, up from £57.8m in the previous year.
The Restaurants & Leisure division ploughed £109.4m into development. The best profit performances were at TGI Friday's, up 47%, at Country Club Hotel Group (excluding Travel Inn), up 24%, and at Beefeater, up 12%.
Alan Parker, managing director of the Country Club Hotel Group (CCH), said bedroom occupancy at the 12 Country Club Resorts was up seven percentage points in the two months since the results, year on year.
Travel Inn's bedroom occupancy had grown four percentage points since the new central reservations system started in June last year, to reach its current average of 84%.
Whitbread is investing £30m in its Travel Inn brand over the next year, to raise the existing 71 properties to 100 by the year end. There are 24 properties currently under construction.
