Premier Inn Owner Whitbread Announced They Are Closing Down Restaurants And Cutting 1,500 Jobs
Lincolnshire Premier Inn workers are today fearing for their jobs after Owner Whitbread announced they plan to shut more than 200 branded restaurants and cut 1,500 jobs.
The popular hotel chain which today had one of its adverts banned for making false claims has shocked its workers with the announcement.
Premier Inn which has hotels in Scunthorpe, Skegness, Lincoln, Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Boston, and Grantham, has said it plans to sell 126 of its restaurants and convert 112 of them into hotel rooms.
Premier Inn which employs 37,000 staff has confused business experts with their announcement they want to turn restaurants into hotel rooms.
It is not just business experts who are confused, people who use hotels are confused as to why they are removing the restaurants.
Premier Inn Job Losses In Lincolnshire Worry Staff
Sarah Lane from Boston said: “When we stay in a hotel, we always choose one that offers breakfast. If Premier Inn is going to close their restaurants does this mean they are going to stop serving breakfasts”
The catering brands under Whitbread include Bar+Block, Thyme, Cookhouse+Pub, Table Table, and Whitbread Inns.
Whitbread has not yet announced if they are removing the breakfast option from their hotels, but if they do then it could result in regular customers going to other hotels.
A spokesperson for Whitbread has said that all workers have been notified about the changes but as yet they are refusing to say which restaurants will be converted into rooms, and which will be sold off.
According to Whitbread, the closing of the restaurants will add more than 3,500 hotel rooms. They have not said as yet if this is a trial or if they plan to close all the restaurants they own and turn them all into hotel rooms.
Read:Couple Angry With Skegness Premier Hotel
Dominic Paul, Whitbread’s chief executive, said of the job cuts: “Sometimes businesses do need to make difficult decisions like this.”
However, he added: “I think we’re doing it for absolutely the right reasons. It’s going to support a material investment in this business and this country over the next few years.”
Dominic has claimed the decision to cut 1,500 jobs did not come easy but was necessary. But according to Premier Inn workers we have spoken to across Lincolnshire, they believe Whitbread doesn’t care about their employees.
A Premier Inn worker in Skegness who spoke to Lincolnshire Today News in confidence said the news was a complete shock.
“We have not been told if we are going to be affected or not but to be honest the move makes no sense. I am personally worried about my job.”
Another Premier Inn worker from Cleethorpes said: “We are being kept in the dark on which hotels will be affected. Whitbread have no interest in the well-being of their employees, they are just interested in profit. Moral at the moment has hit rocket bottom with the news. No one knows if their job is safe.”
Dominic Paul said the move to close the restaurants down is part of a £150m cost-cutting programme.
Whitbread has claimed that the 112 branded restaurants they plan to turn into hotel rooms to increase guest numbers made a loss of £19m in the previous 12 months.
It is not yet known when Whitbread will announce which hotels will be affected, but one thing is for sure, Premier Inn staff are being left in limbo fearing for their jobs.