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Whitbread

New Five-Year Plan, April 2026 to FY31

This plan will transform Whitbread into a higher-margin, higher-returning pure-play hotel business
Dominic Paul, chief executive, on the New Five-Year Plan

£275 million more profit by FY31

Whitbread owns Premier Inn, the UK’s largest hotel brand, and a growing chain in Germany. After a review of every option, including selling its property or the brand, it kept its model and set out a New Five-Year Plan to FY31 on 30 April 2026.

The floors are the extra adjusted profit before tax the plan expects from each source against FY26. Whitbread assumes UK like-for-like sales and cost savings will cover inflation other than business rates, and finance costs.

  • UK and Ireland network
  • Accelerating Growth Plan
  • Germany
Accelerating Growth Plan, each year against FY26
£100m
£50m
£0m
−£10m
£30m–£40m
£65m–£75m
£85m–£95m
£100m
FY27FY28FY29FY30FY31
  • Adjusted profit before tax was £483 million in FY26, the same as in FY25.
  • Cost savings of £250 million from FY27 to FY31, about £50 million a year, are part of the assumption.

UK and Ireland network

  • Add 8,000 new rooms, about two-thirds of them freehold, and leave about 1,500 lower-returning rooms.
  • Grow to 96,000 open rooms by FY31, keeping the longer-term potential of up to 125,000.
  • 846 hotels and 86,582 rooms were open at the end of FY26.

Accelerating Growth Plan

  • Replace all 197 remaining branded restaurants with an integrated restaurant, and sell 110 of them as going concerns within 24 months.
  • Open 3,000 extension rooms, for a return on capital of 15% to 20%.
  • Whitbread opened 31 sites and 583 extension rooms in FY26.
  • 51 branded restaurants have been sold for £50 million, and terms are agreed on 60 more.

Germany

  • Reach 18,000 rooms by FY31, growth of more than half.
  • Turn cash flow positive in FY29, and fund all growth from recycled freeholds or new leaseholds.
  • Germany made an adjusted profit before tax of £2 million in FY26, after a loss of £11 million in FY25.
  • Accommodation sales grew 13% in local currency in Q1 FY27, with six new leasehold hotels.

Premier Inn has 12% of the UK hotel market

In Germany no hotel brand has more than 3%.

UK and Ireland

86,582

  • +8,000 new rooms
  • +3,000 extension rooms
  • −1,500 rooms to leave
  • to FY31,
Germany

11,598

Six hotels and 1,225 rooms opened after the end of FY26.

  • Open at the end of FY26
  • Added by FY31
  • UK potential of up to 125,000
  • A window for every 1,000 rooms

Whitbread will own less of its property

Whitbread owns about half of its property. The plan recycles £1.5 billion of freehold to pay for growth, grows more on leases, and brings the share it owns down to 30% to 40% over time.

  • Owned
  • Leased
  • Each hotel is a tenth of the estate
Net capital spending over five years
Previous plan£2.5bn
New plan£1bn to £1.25bn

About £200 million to £250 million a year.

+5 points

Return on capital employed by FY31, from 11.1% in FY26.,

£2bn

Free cash flow available for dividends and share buy-backs by FY31. Buy-backs pause in FY27 while the restaurant plan is extended.

  1. The review tested the model before the plan.

    Whitbread looked at selling all its freehold property and at realising value from the Premier Inn brand before choosing to keep its model and change how it spends. We recommend testing the biggest alternatives openly before writing a new plan, so the plan can say why they were turned down.

  2. Every source of profit has its own number.

    The £275 million is split into £110 million from the UK network, £100 million from the restaurant plan, and £65 million from Germany, and the restaurant plan has a profit for each year to FY31. We recommend splitting a profit target by where it will come from, so each owner knows their share.

  3. The old and new plans are shown side by side.

    The review printed the previous guidance next to the new: fewer German rooms, less profit from the UK network, and at most half the net capital spending. We recommend showing what changed from the last plan and why, so no one keeps working to the old numbers.

Sources

  1. 1. Whitbread PLC (2026). Outcome of Business Review. Announcement, 30 April 2026. cdn.whitbread.co.uk
  2. 2. Whitbread PLC (2026). FY26 Results. Preliminary results, 30 April 2026. cdn.whitbread.co.uk
  3. 3. Whitbread PLC (2026). Q1 FY27 Trading Update. Trading update, 18 June 2026. cdn.whitbread.co.uk

Headwater is not connected with Whitbread PLC. Whitbread, Premier Inn, and hub by Premier Inn are trade marks of their owner. Updated 28 September 2026.

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