Whitbread to sell 51 Beefeaters
14 January 2003 by David Shrimpton
More than one fifth of Whitbread's Beefeater restaurants are to be sold off, the company has confirmed.
Disposal of the 51 sites is the first step in a three-stage plan to revitalise Beefeater.
The second stage will involve converting a further seven sites to Brewers Fayre pubs and Travel Inn budget hotels.
The third stage will be to introduce a new pub-restaurant format for the remaining Beefeaters.
Chief executive David Thomas said: "The best 25% of these core sites are already generating annual returns on capital of 18% and we are confident that all of the sites we are keeping have the potential to produce good returns."
