The Hobbs Boat Inn in Lympsham is set to close to the general public in September as part of major changes that will see all Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants across the UK closing for good.
Owner Whitbread is undergoing a major overhaul, cutting about 3,800 jobs across the UK and Ireland to make £250 million in cost savings in the next five years.
The Hobbs Boat Inn, located on the A370 between Burnham-On-Sea and Weston, will close to the general public on September 3rd.
A new re-branded restaurant for Premier Inn hotel guests will then open in its place on September 4th. A spokesperson says around 10 staff are losing their jobs at The Hobbs Boat Inn as part of the changes.
Whitbread first announced the plans in April, saying that it would close all of its separately branded restaurants across the country. The decision impacts around 200 sites in total.
Nationally, Whitbread has confirmed the final dates for the affected restaurants, saying that all 89 Brewers Fayre eateries will close after dinner service on 7th September. All 106 Beefeater sites will shut on 10th September. Other Whitbread brands, such as Bar + Block, Cookhouse + Pub, and Table Table, will close on 3rd September.
The group is replacing the chains with restaurants inside Premier Inn hotels, which it said is more efficient and “highly popular with hotel guests”. It is also planning to increase the number of hotel rooms it has open to 96,000 by the 2031 financial year, from the current total of about 86,600.
“We always challenge ourselves to improve and, in light of significant cost increases in the form of business rates and national insurance, as well as the implied market discount to our inherent value, we’ve looked hard at the options open to us to maximise value creation over the medium and long-term,” says Whitbread chief executive Dominic Paul.
“This plan will transform Whitbread into a higher-margin, higher-returning pure-play hotel business.”
The closures come after Whitbread announced the closures of 112 restaurants in April 2024. It said at the time that the spaces would be converted into “more profitable” Premier Inn hotel rooms.
Whitbread is reportedly being hit by the rise in employers’ national insurance contributions.
