Whitbread restaurant sales fall 11% as group profit holds steady

Whitbread has reported an 11% fall in food and beverage sales for the first half of its 2026 financial year as it continues to replace lower-returning branded restaurants with integrated dining facilities alongside Premier Inn hotels.

The company said the performance was in line with expectations and partly offset by stronger trading at its new in-house restaurant formats. UK segment profit margins narrowed to 23.4% from 24.6%, reflecting the restaurant restructuring and higher cost inflation, although £43m of savings were achieved in the period.

Adjusted pre-tax profit for the group was £316m for the 26 weeks to 28 August 2025, compared with £340m last year. Statutory profit before tax was £287m, after £28m in one-off charges linked mainly to restaurant closures and accelerated depreciation under its Accelerating Growth Plan. Adjusted earnings per share also fell 2% to 133.7p.

The group reaffirmed its Five-Year Plan to deliver at least £300m in additional adjusted profit before tax by 2030 through network growth, cost efficiencies and property recycling. Its freehold and long-leasehold estate was valued between £5.5bn and £6.4bn, supporting plans to reinvest £1bn in high-return projects.

Whitbread also maintained its target to return £2bn to shareholders through dividends and buy-backs by 2030. An interim dividend of 36.4p per share was declared, unchanged from last year, with £108m of a £250m buy-back already completed.

Dominic Paul, chief executive of Whitbread, said: “We remain focused on disciplined capital allocation and increasing financial returns. Having completed £99m of sale and leasebacks at attractive yields and with the updated valuation of our estate, we are on track to recycle £1bn by FY30 to fund future high-returning growth, such as our Accelerating Growth Plan, and increase our return on capital employed.”