All 106 Beefeater restaurants will close this week as parent company Whitbread begins a major business restructure.
Whitbread announced the closures in April, which also included Bar + Block, Table Table and Cookhouse + Pub sites, which have already closed this month.
Meanwhile, all Brewers Fayre restaurants closed earlier this week, on Monday, September 7.
Why are all the Beefeater restaurants closing down?
The restaurant chain, which has operated in the UK for decades, is being shut by its parent company as part of a five-year plan to refocus on hotels.
The changes put around 3,800 jobs at risk across its UK and Ireland business, which employs about 30,000 people.
Whitbread said the restructure is intended to deliver £250 million in cost savings. Some restaurant sites will be converted into extra Premier Inn rooms, while about £1.5 billion of freehold property is expected to be sold.
The money raised will help fund further expansion of the hotel business. Whitbread currently owns about 86,600 hotel rooms and aims to increase that figure to 96,000 by the 2031 financial year.
Dominic Paul, chief executive of Whitbread, said: “We always challenge ourselves to improve and, in light of significant cost increases in the form of business rates and national insurance, as well as the implied market discount to our inherent value, we’ve looked hard at the options open to us to maximise value creation over the medium and long-term.
“This has been a rigorous process and we’ve approached all options with an open mind.
“Our new five-year plan builds on our strengths and drives a significant acceleration of our strategy.
“This plan will transform Whitbread into a higher-margin, higher-returning pure-play hotel business.
“We’re going to go further and faster to deliver a great experience for our guests and high-quality growth and returns for our shareholders.”
Whitbread said it expects to redeploy many affected workers elsewhere in the business, although it confirmed the changes will lead to job losses across all restaurants.
A Whitbread statement said: “We recognise the impact of this proposal on colleagues who work at the affected sites.
“As a business which recruits around 15,000 people every year, we expect to be able to retain a significant proportion of those affected and will be looking to redeploy as many of our impacted colleagues as possible.
“However, we do anticipate that the proposed changes, which are subject to consultation, would result in a reduction of around 3,800 roles of a total UK and Ireland workforce of around 30,000.
“We will do all we can to support those colleagues affected.”
Can you still use loyalty points at Beefeater?
If you are looking to visit your local Beefeater before it shuts, you can no longer use any reward points.
Diners had until Monday, August 24 to earn extra points through the brand’s loyalty scheme.
One week was then allowed to redeem vouchers before they expired on Monday, August 31.
The Beefeater Grill Reward Club gave customers five points for every £1 spent on food and drink.
Rewards could be claimed from 500 points, including £5 food vouchers, free starters, desserts or bottles of wine.
When are all the Beefeater restaurants closing?
Beefeater will close its doors for the final time at the end of the day tomorrow, Thursday, September 10.
It will mark the end of the business that ran for 52 years, having been founded in 1974.
Beefeater expanded in 1995, when Whitbread bought and rebranded the Berni Inn chain.
By the late 1990s, Beefeater had more than 250 sites.
Brewers Fayre, Whitbread’s other major chain, was founded slightly later in 1981 and had expanded to more than 100 locations nationwide by the end of the 1980s.
Smaller chains Bar + Block, Table Table and Cookhouse + Pub were founded more recently, with Table Table closing down after 18 years.
Cookhouse + Pub and Bar + Block chains launched in 2017 and 2016, respectively.
All three chains shut last week, on Thursday, September 3.
Some Beefeater sites could be saved
Despite the closures, some closed restaurants could continue under a different name.
Queensway Inns has agreed to the conditional purchase of 53 of the 261 Whitbread restaurant sites marked for closure.
A spokesman for Whitbread told Newsquest previously: “Whitbread has reached an agreement for the conditional sale of 53 branded restaurant sites to Queensway Inns, subject to a number of final conditions being met.
“Queensway Inns has extensive experience operating hospitality businesses across the UK and intends to operate the sites as going concerns.
“Subject to completion of the sale and following the relevant TUPE information and consultation processes, around 900 team members could transfer and will be supported through the process.”
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The 53 sites are reportedly a mix of all Whitbread brands earmarked for closure, with some Beefeater and Brewers Fayre sites potentially being saved.
The future of the remaining 208 restaurant sites remains uncertain.
Queensway plans to rebrand and relaunch the sites as affordable pubs, but the new brand name, menu pricing, and reopening dates have not been confirmed.
Will you be sad to see all of the Beefeater restaurants close down? Let us know in the comments.
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