Whitbread, which owns the Premier Inn hotel chain, has unveiled plans to shed around 3,800 roles in the UK and Ireland.

This will see it phase out its remaining Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants as it redraws its five-year business plan in the wake of tax increases.

The group has poured money into rolling out new Premier Inn hotels across Oxfordshire in recent years.

READ MORE: Two major UK restaurant chains set to close with 3,800 jobs lost

Across the country, some of the on-site eateries at these hotels have already been switched over to Whitbread’s own in-house Thyme brand.

Despite this, a number of older Beefeater and Brewers Fayre outlets continue to operate under their original names.

The Beefeaters in Oxfordshire are the Longwall in Cowley, the restaurant serving Kidlington near the airport, and the Applecart Beefeater next to the Premier Inn at Didcot.

There is only one Brewers Fayre left in the county, which is the one based at the Premier Inn in Bicester.

READ MORE: Westgate Oxford announces new store will open later this spring

Roughly 12 per cent of Whitbread’s 30,000-strong workforce in the UK and Ireland are employed in Beefeater and Brewers Fayre sites.

This newspaper contacted the company earlier this week to clarify whether the Oxfordshire locations are included in the planned cuts.

Because the proposal is still under consultation, there was no further local information available specific to the county, revealed a spokesperson.

The spokesperson added: “We appreciate it must be unsettling for those who may be impacted.”

The owner, Modella Capital, is said to be undertaking a major restructuring of the former WHSmith high street business.

The private equity firm acquired WHSmith’s high street bookshop and newsagent estate last year and rebranded it as TG Jones.

They are now understood to be drawing up plans aimed at avoiding a potential collapse of the business.

According to RetailGazette , the restructuring would affect around 100 of the chain’s 480 shops, while keeping approximately 400 branches trading if landlords agree to rent reductions.

I’m sorry I’ve just found out WHSmiths is leaving the High Street like it’s one of my favourite shops.. I feel sick 😭

— Amber 💙🖤 Saw Nsp! (@BayleafAvidan) July 1, 2025

The plans follow the expiry of a 12-month moratorium on closures that was agreed as part of the acquisition from WHSmith in 2025.

WHSmith retained its travel business, which operates from locations such as railway stations and airports.

Modella is said to be working with professional services firm Teneo and law firm Slaughter and May on the proposal.

The business is reportedly considering using a legal mechanism known as a “cram-down”, which can allow a restructuring plan to be pushed through with the approval of one class of creditors and the High Court, even if other creditors object.

Secure Trust, which is understood to have provided a £50m loan to support the acquisition, is expected to play a key role in negotiations.

Newsquest has contacted Modella Capital for comment.

When did WHSmith get taken over?

The potential closures come less than a year after Modella completed the purchase of WHSmith’s high street arm, which included 464 stores across high streets, shopping centres and retail parks.

At the time of the deal, the business generated an annual turnover of more than £400m and EBITDA of £41.2m in WHSmith’s 2024 financial year.

However, the retailer is reported to have struggled since the rebrand to TG Jones, with some sites that temporarily kept the WHSmith name said to have performed better than those operating under the new fascia.

The business had previously set out ambitions to grow the estate to more than 500 stores and position TG Jones as a “hub of the high street”.

Which stores are at risk?

Stores understood to be at risk include locations in Swindon, Chippenham, Oxford, Ipswich, Hampshire and North Wales.

The TG Jones branch in Stirling is also expected to close in July after its lease renewal failed.

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The restructuring would mark a significant reversal for Modella’s plans for the chain and comes as mid-market high street retailers continue to face pressure from rising costs, weaker consumer demand and changing shopping habits.

Modella has also been rationalising parts of its wider retail portfolio, with recent closures across other businesses it owns blamed on difficult trading conditions and increased operating costs.

Do you miss WHSmith? Let us know which stores you miss from UK high streets

Schneider Electric has partnered with GreenScale to develop a reference architecture for AI-ready data centres across GreenScale campuses in Europe.

The project focuses on the design and operation of new sites for AI and cloud workloads.

The agreement combines Schneider Electric’s Secure Power and Services divisions with GreenScale’s experience in data centre operations, software and digital twin systems. Together, they aim to produce a design blueprint to shape how GreenScale’s European facilities are built, monitored and maintained.

At the core of the plan is greater use of automation and predictive maintenance from the outset of each site. This approach is intended to reduce total cost of ownership by cutting unnecessary maintenance, improving asset use and lowering lifetime operating costs.

The architecture also includes predictive analytics and condition-based maintenance to improve operational visibility and reduce risk. These measures will be built into sites from the start rather than added after construction.

Design approach

GreenScale is developing data centres in power-rich markets with access to renewable energy, with a stated focus on sustainability, community impact and regional investment. The partnership aims to create a standard design that can be used across those campuses.

The design is also expected to include digital twin integration, remote monitoring and control systems, and a unified instrumentation stack linking physical infrastructure with digital systems. According to the companies, this setup is intended to support high-density AI clusters and cloud computing workloads while maintaining reliable performance.

For operators of large facilities, maintenance planning has become a growing challenge as AI-related demand increases equipment density and puts more strain on cooling and power systems. Condition-based maintenance is meant to shift work away from fixed service intervals toward intervention based on operating data and equipment condition.

That could help on-site teams focus on targeted maintenance and reduce the risk of human error. The companies also pointed to potential benefits for supply chain planning, especially in remote or emerging regions where replacement parts and specialist support may take longer to reach sites.

European demand

The partnership comes as data centre developers across Europe respond to rising demand for AI, cloud and high-performance computing infrastructure. Operators are under pressure to bring new capacity online quickly while keeping energy use, uptime and operating costs under control.

GreenScale is positioning its campuses in markets where power availability and renewable energy potential are stronger than in more congested hubs. That matters because many established European data centre markets face grid constraints, planning limits and longer development timelines.

By setting out a repeatable design model, the companies are seeking to make deployment more predictable from site to site. Schneider Electric said the use of sensors, monitoring tools and remote tracking should give operators a clearer view of site performance from the first day of operation.

The collaboration also reflects a broader shift in the data centre sector toward closer integration of software oversight with physical infrastructure. Rather than treating power, cooling, maintenance and control systems as separate layers, operators are increasingly trying to connect them in a single operating model.

That is particularly relevant for AI-oriented facilities, where higher rack densities can create more complex operating conditions than traditional enterprise or colocation data centres. More intensive workloads can place added demands on both electrical equipment and cooling systems, making early fault detection and continuous monitoring more important.

Dan Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, GreenScale, said the partnership reflects that shift in demand. “As demand for AI, Cloud and HPC accelerates in Europe, data center operators must rethink how facilities are designed and managed,” said Thomas. “Our work with Schneider Electric demonstrates how advanced data center architectures and digital innovation can unlock new levels of automation, efficiency and resilience, and will set a new standard for intelligent design to benefit our customers.”

Thierry Chamayou, Vice President Cloud and Service Providers, Europe, Schneider Electric, said the work would combine expertise from across the company’s data centre business. “GreenScale’s vision for its European data centers represents a new era in advanced design, where automation, efficiency, and real-time visibility are embedded from day one,” said Chamayou. “By combining expertise from our Secure Power and Services divisions, we are helping to create a resilient, AI-ready infrastructure platform that will operate efficiently even in the most demanding environments.”