Whitbread has appointed international real estate advisor Savills as its acquisition agent as part of plans to purchase trading hotels across the UK for conversion into its Premier Inn brand.
The hotel company is aiming to complement organic growth with a sustainable pipeline of hotel rooms through this method of acquisition. The search will encompass all areas of the UK and is specifically focussed on assets with a minimum of 80 rooms, with good accessibility and of modern construction.
Premier Inn is expanding in line with strong customer demand and has set a growth milestone to achieve a total of 85,000 bedrooms by 2020 (up from approximately 65,000 bedrooms at present).
Premier Inn is on track to open 3,700 bedrooms in this financial year (25 October Interim Results) and is continually re-stacking its development and forward openings pipeline.
This strengthened focus on growth through going concerns (alongside ongoing acquisitions through new freehold and leasehold sites and extensions at trading Premier Inn sites) follows the appointment of Andrew Eldridge to the Premier Inn acquisitions team in 2015 as head of acquisitions (going concerns).
Tom Cunningham, hotels director at Savills, commented, 'We are very pleased to be supporting Whitbread with the ongoing expansion of its hugely successful Premier Inn brand and look forward to announcing further details of acquisitions as they complete.'
Andrew Eldridge, head of acquisitions (going concerns) at Premier Inn, added, 'We have an active and established growth plan which is delivering year on year and appointing Savills on this going concerns instruction will only add to that.
'Growth through going concerns is an important part of our wider acquisitions mix and our national expansion plan to reach 85,000 Premier Inn bedrooms by 2020. We're actively looking for opportunities nationwide, both for rebuild or refurbishment, to add to our committed development pipeline.'
Within the last 12 months, Whitbread has acquired a number of trading hotels including the Campanile in Glasgow, Hampton by Hilton in Derby and Hilton in Newbury.