By Laura McGuire
Whitbread, the owner of Premier Inn Hotels, has drafted in advisers to sell around a third of its worst performing Beefeater and Brewers Fayre pubs, The Times has reported.
The news comes one year after the FTSE 100 firm hired Goldman Sachs to explore options for its 400-strong food and beverage estate.
Apparently, Whitbread was close to offloading the business to Beverly Hills based Platinum Equity but the deal collapsed after the two parties failed to agree on a price.
Now, bosses at the hospitality giant are said to have drafted in Christie & Co to sell between 30 and 50 of its worst-performing sites, City sources told The Times.
Most of the pubs in question are situated next to Premier Inns. Sources added a “further 100 pubs and restaurants are expected to be converted into extra hotel rooms for Premier Inns, also part of Whitbread”.
The company is also understood to be mulling options for the remaining 250 sites.
Sources close to Whitbread told the outlet this weekend that “no final decision had been taken on the estate”.
The hotel firm has performed well in recent months, thanks to a return to travel post-Covid.
Hotel room sales were up 11 per cent in the third quarter and overall food and beverage sales for the third quarter were at £187.9m.
It said “strong pricing” had allowed it to boost revenue per available room by nine per cent, while a major expansion in Germany also proved to bolster the company.
City A.M. has contacted both parties for a comment.
