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Whitbread

Whitbread PLC
Public limited company
Traded as
Industry Leisure
Hospitality
Founded 1742; 275 years ago (1742)
London, England
Founder Samuel Whitbread and Thomas Shewell
Headquarters Houghton Regis, United Kingdom
Area served
China, Dubai, Europe, India, Republic of Ireland, Russia, United Kingdom
Key people
Richard Baker (Chairman)
Alison Brittain (CEO)
Revenue £2,921.8 million (2016)
£528.1 million (2016)
£387.3 million (2016)
Number of employees
50,000 (2016)
Divisions Beefeater
Brewers Fayre
Costa Coffee
Premier Inn
Table Table
Website www.whitbread.co.uk

Whitbread PLC is a multinational hotel, coffee shop and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, United Kingdom. The company has its origins in brewing.

Its largest division is Premier Inn, which is the largest hotel brand in the UK with around 650 hotels and over 50,000 rooms. Its Costa Coffee chain has 3,080 shops across 30 countries as of May 2014 and is the world's second-largest international coffee shop chain. Its other brands include the restaurant chains Beefeater, Brewers Fayre and Table Table.

Whitbread is listed on the and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

In 1742 Samuel Whitbread formed a partnership with Godfrey and Thomas Shewell and they acquired a small brewery at the junction of Old Street and Upper Whitecross Street and another brewhouse for pale and amber beers in Brick Lane, Spitalfields. Godfrey Shewell withdrew from the partnership as Thomas Shewell and Samuel Whitbread bought the large site of the derelict King's Head brewery in Chiswell Street in 1750. The new brewery was for the production of porter, and was renamed the Hind Brewery after the Whitbread family coat of arms. From the outset, Whitbread was the leading financial partner, and solely responsible for management, and in 1761, Whitbread acquired Shewell's share of the business for £30,000. It was the largest brewery in the world by the 1780s. In 1796 the company produced 202,000 barrels of porter.

The firm struggled after the death of Samuel Whitbread Sr, and saw ownership transfer to his son, also called Samuel Whitbread.


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