Harbour Lights Beefeater closure date confirmed as part of major five-year Whitbread restructure

Multiple restaurants will close by the start of next month as part of a multi-million pound cost saving scheme.

Plans to axe hundreds of restaurants and 3,800 jobs were announced by Whitbread earlier this year to make £250 million in cost savings over the next five years.

This comes as the group, which owns Brewers Fayre and Beefeater, confirmed it will replace the chains with restaurants inside Premier Inn hotels as it was more efficient and “highly popular with hotel guests”.

As a result, all Brewers Fayre restaurants across the UK will cease trading on September 7. The chain’s Clarence Pier (Southsea) location closed down on June 30 of this year despite undergoing a million pound refurbishment three years ago.

Beefeater’s demise is also looming, with all 106 remaining branches including Cosham’s Harbour Lights and Oast & Squire in Fareham shutting up shop by September 10.

In April, Whitbread chief executive Dominic Paul said: “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.”

“This plan will transform Whitbread into a higher-margin, higher-returning pure-play hotel business.”