Whitbread PLC, the largest hotel operator in the UK with 11% market share, is the owner of the UK’s well-known hotel brand, Premier Inn, as well as restaurant brands Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Bar + Block.
With a successful 279-year history in the hospitality sector, the company, runs 820 hotels in the UK with over 78,000 rooms, and 712 restaurants in the UK and Ireland. Whitbread also has a growing presence in Germany with 29 hotels and a committed pipeline of 68 hotels.
Despite being heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with much of the estate shut for long periods in 2020 during the UK wide lockdowns, Whitbread hasn’t weakened in its resolve to push ahead with its “Force for Good” sustainability programme. Updated in 2020 to reflect the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the hospitality sector, the programme is grouped into three key pillars - Opportunity, Community and Responsibility. Within each area, Whitbread has set long term strategic commitments to reach its goal of enabling people to live and work well.
As part of its “Force for Good” strategy, the hospitality company aims to halve its carbon emissions intensity by 2025, against a 2018/19 baseline, and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Furthermore, Whitbread plans to remove single-use plastic across the business by 2025, halve food waste by 2030, and improve water stewardship. The firm already powers all of its UK hotels and restaurants with 100% renewable energy and announced in January 2021 the rollout of up to 1000 ‘GeniePoint’ Network rapid electric charging points, with 600 to be installed over the next three years in partnership with energy company ENGIE.