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Buying a business

What the Whitbread closures mean if you want to buy a pub

Whitbread closes 261 pub-restaurants this week. Less is settled about the buildings than the coverage suggests, and being ready matters more than watching listings.

Reading time 5 min read
Category Business guides
Written by The bizbritain team
Whitbread is closing every one of its branded restaurants this week. That is a hard week for the people who work in them. It is also the biggest opening in years for anyone who has wanted to run a pub. It is worth understanding what is genuinely on offer before you act.

Section 01

What Whitbread has actually said

Whitbread confirmed the dates on its own group news page. Bar and Block, Table Table, Cookhouse and Pub and Whitbread Inns closed on 3 September. All Brewers Fayre restaurants close on 7 September. All Beefeater restaurants close on 10 September.
According to CLH News, that covers 261 sites across the five brands: 106 Beefeater, 89 Brewers Fayre and 66 across the other three.
Whitbread says some sites will become Premier Inn restaurants inside the hotel. It plans to add around 600 extra hotel rooms across the estate.
261sites closing across the five restaurant brands
208of those whose future Whitbread has not confirmed
53already sold to Queensway Inns to reopen as value pubs
600extra hotel rooms Whitbread plans to add, so some sites stay in its estate

Section 02

What nobody has confirmed yet

Whitbread has not said these sites are going on the market. Most of the coverage skips that.
What is known is narrower. According to CLH News, 53 sites have been sold to Queensway Inns, which plans to reopen them as value pubs. The future of the other 208 has not been confirmed, and Whitbread has not ruled out further disposals.
A large number of pub-restaurant sites are in play. Nobody outside Whitbread yet knows how many will be sold, how many will be converted, and how many will simply sit. Anyone telling you that hundreds of freeholds are about to hit the open market is guessing.
That does not make this a non-event. A sale of 53 sites in one block tells you Whitbread is willing to deal. It also tells you the first buyers were the ones already prepared.

Section 03

What you would actually be buying

  1. Freehold or leasehold, and they are different deals

    A freehold is a property purchase with a business attached. A leasehold is a business purchase with rent attached. They need different finance and they carry very different risk.

  2. A building shaped for a chain

    These sites were fitted out for high-volume standardised menus. Budget for a refurbishment, and get a builder to price it before you agree anything.

  3. A trading history you cannot rely on

    The accounts belong to a chain with national buying power and central marketing. They are not a forecast of what you would take.

  4. A local team that has just been let go

    Experienced kitchen and front of house staff will be looking for work in the same towns. That is the part of this most buyers underrate.

Section 04

Get the finance ready before the site appears

This is the practical point, and it is the one that decides who ends up with a site.
Property-backed deals move on the seller's timetable, not yours. When a site does become available, you are competing with buyers who already know what they can borrow. Arranging that after you find the site is how people lose the site.
What being ready looks like is simple. Know your deposit. Have two years of accounts or a credible business plan ready to send. Know roughly what a lender will lend against a trading pub, which is usually a good deal less than the asking price.
bizbritain is a broker. We help you work out what the deal can carry, and which lenders will look at it. That way you can move when a site comes up, rather than starting the conversation then. We do not make the lending decision and we do not provide the money.

This guide is general information, not financial advice. Applications are subject to status, affordability and lender criteria.

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