Whitbread's transformation from brewer to leisure retailer

What is it about?

This historic study of Whitbread explains key periods and events in the evolution of a family brewing firm founded in 1750. The article describes the resources and routines successive managers developed as the firm left the heritage of brewing and traditional pub retailing to establish a new business model focused on the Costa Coffee chain and Premier Inn budget hotels.

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Why is it important?

The article incorporates a wide range of primary and secondary source material to build a picture of how Whitbread adapted to a changing socio-political environment, including regulatory challenge to its traditional vertically-integrated structure. Having established a business model aligned to the two new and rapidly growing consumer categories, coffee shops and budget hotels, Whitbread now finds itself under intense pressure to break up the Costa Coffee and Premier Inn amalgamation.