We may have grown to become the UK’s largest hotel and restaurant group, but we’ve never forgotten where it all started. Samuel Whitbread’s founding spirit was to put our people first, focus on the customer and recognise that progress comes from innovative thinking. These are the values we continue to live by today.
About Us
At Whitbread we operate the UK’s favourite hotel chain, Premier Inn, as well as restaurant brands, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Bar + Block.
We’re Great Britain’s leading hospitality company, employing around 35,000 people in over 1,200 Premier Inn hotels and restaurants across the country, serving over five million customers every month.
The past five years have seen huge growth in our business. We’ve added over 130 hotels and nearly 100 restaurants – creating an outstanding 15,000 UK jobs in the process.
Outside of the UK, our expansion plans are focused on Germany where our ambition is to be the number one budget hotel operator. We have an open and committed pipeline of more than 10,000 Premier Inn rooms across 53 hotels in Germany.
“We are committed to creating a great place to work for our 35,000 team members who keep our business thriving, offering amazing opportunities for development, helping them realise their potential and build their career with us.”
Alison Brittain, CEO Whitbread
History of Whitbread
Whitbread is one of the UK’s oldest companies, with a history going all the way back to 1742. For the first 250 years, it was our breweries and pubs we were famous for, but in 2001 we refocused on hotels and restaurants and became the leading hospitality business we are today. Explore the timeline to find out more.
2020
Whitbread was recognised as a ‘Top Employer’ by the TopEmployers Institute – an incredible 10 consecutive years of achieving this external accreditation where only organisations considered to have the highest standards of excellence across a range of employee conditions qualify.
2019
Whitbread makes commitment to remove all unnecessary single-use plastics from our hotels and restaurants by 2025 to ensure our impact on our environment is as small as possible.
2018
Confirmed the sale of the UK's biggest coffee chain Costa Coffee to Coca-Cola in a £3.9bn deal.
2017
In early 2016, Andy Harrison retired and was succeeded by Alison Brittain
2015
Premier Inn opens their 700th hotel
2012
50.000 rooms in Premier Inn UK
2010
Alan Parker retires as CEO and is succeeded by Andy Harrison
2009
Launch Good Together CSR programme
2008
First international Premier Inn hotel
2007
Sale of David Lloyd Leisure and TGI Friday’s
2006
Sale of 50% shareholding in Pizza Hut UK Ltd
2004
Acquisition of Premier Lodge hotels
2003
Acquisition of Cannons Health & Fitness BV (Netherlands)
2001
Whitbread leaves the pub and bar business
1987
First Travel Inn opens
1974
First Beefeater opens
1868
Beer bottling introduced, making Whitbread a national brand
1750
UK’s first purpose-built mass-production brewery created at Chiswell Street
1742
Samuel Whitbread starts brewing beer
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Proud of our Achievements
We’ve picked up our fair share of awards over the years. Recent highlights have seen us awarded Top Employer status in the UK for the 9th year in a row and we’re proud Premier Inn was named the number 1 large hotel chain in the UK by Which? for the fourth year running. The business has been awarded the Best UK Family Hotel in the TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards for the 2nd year running, Best UK Hotel Group in the Silver Travel Awards and the Business InThe Community Environmental Leadership Award.
Our CSR programme, Force for Good
Our CSR programme, Force for Good, is a fundamental part of how we do business at Whitbread. For us, being a successful company is not just about making profits – it’s about us being a force for good in all the communities where we operate. The programme is made up of three different kinds of activity: our teams and communities, customer wellbeing and reducing our impact on the environment.
- We were the first hospitality company in the UK to receive the prestigious Carbon Trust Triple Awards
- We aim to provide 6,000 apprenticeships and 6,500 work placements for young people by 2020
- We continue to invest in energy-efficient building materials and equipment
Great Ormond Street Hospital
We are proud to partner with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSHCC), which is our nominated charity. We’ve pledged to raise £7.5 million, which will go towards the construction of a major new development at the Great Ormond Street Hospital. So far, our dedicated teams have raised over £4m for the charity to date.
From where you stand, the future looks
bright
We’re not just the largest hospitality business in the UK. We’re also one of the fastest growing. And with new Premier Inns and restaurants opening up every day, the opportunities for developing your career with us are endless. If you want a future worth getting excited about, this is the place to be.
We know it’s our people who make our brands. We look to bring the very best of talent into our business – and do everything we can to ensure they stick around. Give us confidence, commitment and real customer focus, and we can offer you excellent benefits and all the training and development opportunities you'll ever need.
Growing at Whitbread
We have a refreshingly different take on career development at Whitbread. In most places, it’s only ever about the next step on the ladder. But we think there are all kinds of ways you can potentially develop your career. Whether you want to move across to a new department or try something completely different with another of our well-loved brands.
Throughout your time with us, there will be endless opportunities for you to gain new experiences, perspectives and angles. So whether you want to move across to a new department or try something completely different with another one of our well-loved brands, you’ll be supported all the way. It’s your turn to move on.
Our People
We're proud to be home to such well-loved brands, but what makes us even prouder is that it’s all down to the passion and ambition of our people. Whether a customer is dining in, sipping on or checking out, everyone at Whitbread puts them right at the heart of everything they do. It’s only right then, that we put our people at the heart of everything we do.
"Whitbread is all about people. We work extremely hard to create an engaging environment for our 35,000 employees, ensuring our people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities and progress at the fastest possible rate in order to fulfil their potential."
Louise Smalley, Group HR Director
What we offer
Rewards and recognition. Opportunities to develop and grow. The chance to build yourself a long and varied career doing something you really love. Just some of the things we can offer you here at Whitbread. Find out more about the benefits of joining us.
Helping people achieve their dreams
We want Whitbread to be a place where people’s skills and careers grow as fast as we do. A place where everyone has the opportunities to develop and achieve their dreams.
Feeling recognised and rewarded
We like to give everyone who works for us a little bit extra over and above their pay. We also have an amazing recognition culture at Whitbread, so if you perform well there are always plenty of awards, prizes and bonuses up for grabs. Some of the benefits we offer include:
Each member of the Whitbread team receives exclusive discounts across all of our businesses – our way of giving you that little bit more. Every time you visit one of our Premier Inns or restaurants, you’ll enjoy a discount of at least 25% (and up to 50% off a stay in Premier Inn).
Encouraging and investing in our teams is at the heart of our culture. We offer a range of incentives to ensure that all of our teams benefit from the success of our business as a whole.
- Everyone gets to share in success through a variety of national and local incentive schemes
- We give out loads of awards to our highest-performing people and teams
- Generous bonus schemes for managers based on hotel or regional performance.
Each of our team members have the chance to invest in the future of our business, and benefit from the success of Whitbread. Our Sharesave scheme gives employees the option to invest through a savings plan over a fixed period, and then purchase Whitbread shares at a significant discount.
Everyone at Whitbread is entitled to a bright future – and we’re not just talking about your career. Whilst it may seem like a long way off, to help everyone get the most out of their retirements, we have a generous company pension scheme, which all team members can choose to opt into.
Supporting our people’s wellbeing, and that of their family, is at the top of our list. Depending on your role within Whitbread, you’ll have access to company sponsored health cover for you or your family, or to discounted private healthcare schemes for you and your family.
To help further, all Whitbread employees can take advantage of a range of other healthcare benefits as well, including receiving significant discounts on dental insurance and regular health assessments.
Whitbread is committed to supporting and helping all of our teams when facing challenges or problems either at home or at work – and as such, have an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) provider, in partnership with Hospitality Action.
