Two major UK restaurant chains to close with 3,800 jobs lost

Premier Inn owner Whitbread is to cut about 3,800 jobs in the UK and Ireland and shut its remaining Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants as it resets its five-year business strategy, amid tax rises.

In recent years, Whitbread has invested heavily in new Premier Inn hotels across Oxfordshire.

While some Premier Inn hotels in the county now have restaurants converted to the chain’s in-house Thyme brand, a few old-fashioned Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants remain.

READ MORE: Two crashes spark major rush hour delays across Oxfordshire

They include the Longwall Beefeater in Cowley, Bicester Premier Inn (Brewers Fayre), the Beefeater restaurant at Oxford Kidlington (Airport) Hotel, and the Applecart Beefeater at the Premier Inn for Didcot.

With the cuts set to affect about 12 per cent of Whitbread’s 30,000-strong workforce in the UK and Ireland working in its Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants, this newspaper approached Whitbread to see if the Oxfordshire sites would be affected.

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.”

READ MORE: ‘Heartbreak’ as Oxfordshire playground facing axe after 50 years

A statement last week said: “Whitbread has announced today (April 30) that, as part of its proposed new Five-Year Plan, it intends to become a pure-play hotel business focused on Premier Inn, the UK’s number one hotel brand, which is synonymous with quality and value.

“This change will involve exiting all of our remaining branded restaurants, which trade under brands including Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, a number of which will be converted into approximately 600 additional Premier Inn rooms, with the remainder expected to be sold as going concerns.

“The proposed changes announced today build on the success of our Accelerating Growth Plan, announced in 2024, which involved the conversion of over 200 branded restaurants to additional rooms, and the creation of an integrated restaurant in each hotel.

READ MORE: Riverside pub back from the dead years after closing

“This format has proved highly popular with guests and under the proposal, it would be rolled out to all hotels where there is currently a branded restaurant.

“We recognise the impact of this proposal on colleagues who work at the affected sites.

“As a business which recruits around 15,000 people every year, we expect to be able to retain a significant proportion of those affected and will be looking to redeploy as many of our impacted colleagues as possible.

“However, we do anticipate that the proposed changes, which are subject to consultation, would result in a reduction of around 3,800 roles of a total UK and Ireland workforce of around 30,000.

“We will do all we can to support those colleagues affected.”