Whitbread to sell Brewers Fayre and Beefeater pub restaurants

Leisure giant Whitbread today revealed plans to sell a sizeable chunk of its Brewers Fayre and Beefeater pub restaurants.

Whitbread said all pub restaurants that are not located next to a Premier Travel Inn would be sold, although it was examining plans to build budget hotels at 100 sites in its existing estate.

The company revealed that it was also reviewing the "nature and size" of its investments in the Pizza Hut and TGI Friday's chains as it continued to take action against stagnant sales.

That strategy has seen it exit the four-star hotels business by selling 46 Marriott Hotels held in a joint venture to the Royal Bank of Scotland for almost £1b last week.

Details emerged as Whitbread said pre-tax profits lifted 13.1% to £181.1 million during the year to 2 March, although underlying like-for-like sales rose at a slower rate of 0.4%.

Premier Travel Inn is the fastest-growing business within Whitbread and the brand is set to launch overseas after a joint venture was unveiled today with Emirates Group to introduce budget hotels to the Gulf region.

Like-for-like sales at Premier Travel Inn rose 7% last year and its contribution to operating profits increased by 30.4% to £139.8m.

Chief executive Alan Parker said: "It is clear that the combination of a Premier Travel Inn and a pub restaurant is a compelling customer proposition and provides industry-leading returns."

There are currently 271 pub restaurants next to a Premier Travel Inn and he said expansion plans would be finalised over the next few months.

Whitbread said a new target was now in place to double the number of Costa outlets to 1,000 within four years.

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By David Winning, PA deputy city editor

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