- Common Table Group has agreed to buy 57 former Whitbread restaurant sites and one Premier Inn hotel.
- The deal is expected to create around 700 jobs, with sites reopening from next month.
- Former Whitbread managers are supporting the new owner as it plans refurbishments and new menus.
Former senior managers at Whitbread are helping bring 57 restaurants back to life after the Premier Inn owner shut its Beefeater and Brewers Fayre businesses as part of a major restructuring.
British hospitality company Common Table Group has agreed to acquire 57 restaurant sites and one Premier Inn hotel from Whitbread for an undisclosed sum.
The portfolio includes former Beefeater, Brewers Fayre and Cookhouse locations. The new owner plans to invest in refurbishments and develop new menus, with the restaurants expected to begin reopening from next month.
The deal is expected to create around 700 jobs.
Why are the former Whitbread restaurants reopening?
Whitbread announced plans earlier this year to exit its non-hotel restaurant operations as part of a major turnaround programme.
The company, which owns Premier Inn, said it needed to respond to rising costs, including higher business rates and National Insurance. Its restructuring plan involved closing the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre chains and cutting thousands of jobs.
Common Table Group was founded by coffee entrepreneur Thomas Anderson, who said the immediate priority was to get the acquired sites “back open and trading as soon as possible”.
“We’re building an entrepreneurial business with a local feel, where our teams are empowered to make decisions and shape each venue around the people and communities it serves,” Anderson said.
“We’re excited about what we can create together and look forward to bringing new energy and ideas to our guests.”
The new restaurants will also serve barista coffee supplied by sister company Rodeo, which operates 15 sites across London and Manchester.
What role are former Whitbread managers playing?
The buyers have been supported by Rove360, a hospitality consultancy whose team includes former senior Whitbread managers.
The consultancy previously worked with Whitbread on a cost-cutting programme that helped the group deliver £150 million in labour-cost savings.
That creates an unusual twist to the deal: people with direct experience of Whitbread’s restaurant operations are now helping a new business take over many of the sites that the FTSE 100 company decided it no longer wanted to operate itself.
For Common Table Group, the opportunity is to take established restaurant locations and give them a new operating model rather than starting from scratch.
For Whitbread, the disposal is part of a much broader strategy to concentrate on its hotel business.
The group unveiled plans in April to cut costs by around £2 billion, including the closure of its restaurant chains and almost 4,000 job cuts.
Whitbread chief executive Dominic Paul said at the time that the company had reviewed its options in response to “significant cost increases in the form of business rates and National Insurance”.
The restaurant closures have also come amid pressure from investors.
Corvex Asset Management, which owns more than 6 per cent of Whitbread, has criticised the company's capital allocation and pushed for greater scrutiny of its strategy. The activist investor has also been seeking a seat on Whitbread’s board and called for a “rigorous, fact-based review” of the business.
The sale of the restaurant sites now gives the properties a second chance under a new operator, while allowing Whitbread to focus more heavily on Premier Inn.
For the former Beefeater and Brewers Fayre locations, the next phase will be about whether new ownership, investment and a more locally focused approach can turn the sites into sustainable hospitality businesses again.
