CAMRA slams Whitbread pub closures

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has expressed concern over how Whitbread, which operates brands such as Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, is converting more than 100 of its managed restaurants into additional Premier Inn hotel rooms.

It was reported earlier this year that Whitbread would be disposing of a number of under-performing sites, either by closing them, or converting them into Premier Inn hotel rooms.

In the company’s Preliminary Results Announcement released on 30 April, the details of the plan were revealed:

“Converting 112 lower-returning branded restaurants into new hotel rooms having first transferred the delivery of F&B to an integrated restaurant.”

“Exiting 126 lower-returning branded restaurants; they will continue to operate as they do now so that they can be sold as going concerns and we have already agreed to sell 21 of these restaurants for £28 million.”

This so-called “Accelerating Growth Plan” was predicted to result in the loss of around 1,500 jobs, though Whitbread stated that it would “seek to find alternative opportunities wherever possible” for the newly-unemployed.

After announcing the closures/conversions of the sites, Whitbread’s Q1 results were strong, with overall sales growing by 1%.

CAMRA concerns

Almost exactly three months after Whitbread confirmed its intentions, an open letter from CAMRA chief executive Tom Stainer to Whitbread chief executive Dominic Paul expressed the consumer group’s “utter dismay” regarding the decision.

“We were extremely concerned to learn of the mass closure of these pubs,” the letter read. “Pubs are an asset to their local communicates, combatting loneliness and social isolation, fostering community cohesion, and injecting money into local communities. The pubs you have closed were popular destinations for local people and will be greatly missed by many of them.”

“The ‘About Us’ section of your website boasts of your ‘trusted brand’ and ‘culture and values’ being a force for good. Furthermore, your 2023/4 Environmental, Social and Governance Report outlines ‘Community’ as one of three core pillars of your ‘Force for Good’ strategy, pledging to ‘make a positive contribution to the communities that we serve’,” the letter continued. “I would ask that you carefully reflect on whether the actions that you have put in train align with your previous commitments, and your outlined values. I would argue that they do not.”

A spokesperson for Whitbread once told the drinks business that the sites being offloaded were not in fact “pubs”, but rather “managed restaurants”. However, according to CAMRA’s national planning policy adviser Paul Ainsworth, the definition issue is a contentious one.

“Concerningly, it appears that most of these pubs have been closed to the public, under the argument that they are restaurants, and worryingly most local authorities have accepted that,” said Ainsworth. “We are now campaigning for a legal definition of a pub for planning purposes so that if you can buy a drink at the bar without purchasing a meal, the venue would be considered a pub.”

Stainer’s letter also argued that the Whitbread sites fell under the parameters of a pub: “Our understanding is that most, if not all, of the affected licensed premises operated to all intents and purposes as pubs – customers could purchase just a drink, rather than being required to purchase food as well. Your own website describes the offers from your various brands as ‘pub food’.”

the drinks business has reached out to Whitbread for its response to the letter.