Whitbread plans 'phased withdrawal' from South East Asia
Whitbread has announced plans to start a ‘phased withdrawal’ from its Premier Inn operations in India and South East Asia. The company will be focusing on expansion plans in the UK, Europe and Middle East instead.
It currently runs two hotels in Indonesia, one in Thailand and three in India, with a total of 785 rooms.
In a statement Alison Brittain, CEO, Whitbread commented:
“In April I laid out a three-point plan to build a bigger and better Whitbread. I reiterated the strong growth prospects for Whitbread in the UK, where we have laid out bold milestones for Premier Inn and Costa and confirmed that Whitbread also has an exciting future beyond the UK. A key strategic theme is to focus on our strengths internationally and that means identifying those opportunities to invest our capital and management time wisely to generate the best and most sustainable returns. To build a successful future for Premier Inn overseas, we must focus on those markets where we can grow scale and where our brand proposition is most compelling for our customers.”
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