Whitbread will diet Premier Inn restaurants and hotels
The coronavirus crisis continues to cut down jobs.
British group Whitbread, owner of Premier Inn hotels and restaurant chains, has announced a project that foresees 6,000 job cuts, equal to 18% of its workforce, due to the still severely limited attendance due to the health crisis from Covid-19.
As the BBC points out, the news comes as the Johnson government's leave program, which still pays 27,000 Whitbread employees, approaches.
The company's shares lost around 2.5% of their value shortly after the markets opened in London.
THE WHITEBREAD PLAN
Whitbread says he will open a consultation period on this plan, counting on the fact that most of the job cuts will take place through voluntary exits.
The UK group said it expects demand to remain lower across the sector until 2021 and possibly even 2022.
In addition to the Premier Inn hotel chain, Whitbread also owns the Beefeater chain of pubs and restaurants.
RESTAURANTS AND HOTELS OPEN… BUT
Most Premier Inn hotels and pub restaurants reopened in the first week of August and 801 hotels were open at the end of the month.
Whitbread explained that demand has been strong in seaside towns and traditional regional tourist resorts where nearly 80 percent of hotel rooms were full in August. However, it has not been the same elsewhere in the UK, particularly London and other major cities.
THE CAUSES ALREADY KNOWN
The reduction in travelers and those who share a meal out has also hurt Whitbread. The company said hotel stays halved in August and the number of restaurants dropped by more than a third, though it said it was helped by the Eat Out to Help Out program.
In particular, hotel sales were 78% lower in the first half of the year compared to 2019, while food and beverage sales fell 77%.
AND THE MOST RECENT ONES
Whitbread's year comes as pubs, bars and restaurants in England face new restrictions amid fears of a second wave of coronavirus this fall. From Thursday, in fact, the premises will have to close at 22:00 as anticipated by the press before the speech of Prime Minister Johnson expected today.
WHITBREAD FOLLOWS COSTA COFFEE, PIZZA EXPRESS AND PRET IN MANGER
As the Guardian points out , the pandemic has led to thousands of job losses in the hospitality industry. The former Whitbread Costa Coffee chain, which was sold to Coca-Cola two years ago, is cutting up to 1,650 jobs in its cafes, more than one in 10 of its workforce. Pizza Express is closing 73 restaurants as part of a bailout restructuring deal with the loss of 1,100 employees, and the Pret a Manger sandwich chain is cutting nearly 2,900 jobs.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/whitbread-mettera-a-dieta-ristoranti-e-alberghi-premier-inn/ on Tue, 22 Sep 2020 10:29:05 +0000.