Whitbread Hotels has announced it is to sell 140 of its restaurants after they reported a slump in profits over the last half-year.
Restaurants trading under the Bella Pasta and Café Rouge names reported profits down by 0.9 per cent and profits at the TGI Fridays theme pubs were down by 6 per cent.
The company will retain its Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants, which reported profit increases of 0.9 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively.
Whitbread plans to rebrand many of its Beefeater restaurants, which generate weekly sales of around £22,000.
Hundreds of jobs will be affected by the changes but the company expects no net job losses – it will increase the number of Costa Coffee outlets to more than 500.
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by Richard Staines
