Whitbread to cut 6,000 jobs as Covid-19 batters sales

Hotel and restaurant chain Whitbread said it was cutting 6,000 jobs after suffering a slump in trading due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Premier Inn owner announced the 18% cut in its workforce as like-for-like sales plunged by more than 77% as it felt the full force of the lockdown from March to June August UK total sales improved to be 38.5% down year-on-year.

The cuts come as the UK government prepares to announce that pubs and restaurants must close at 10pm, in an attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Whitbread also owns Brewers Fayre, Beefeater and Table Table restaurants, while operating around 800 Premier Inns across the country.

"With market demand expected to remain at lower levels in the short to medium-term, we have now taken the very difficult decision to announce our intention to enter into consultation on proposals that could result in up to 6,000 redundancies for our hotel and restaurant colleagues," Whitbread said in a statement.