Chain restaurant announces closure date for Sunderland eatery
A restaurant in Sunderland will be closing its doors shortly after its parent company announced plans to restructure earlier this year.
The Wessington Brewers Fayre, in Castletown, is closing on Monday, September 7 alongside 197 other Whitbread-owned restaurants as part of Whitbread’s new five-year plan.
The hotel and restaurant company, which also owns hotel chain Premier Inn, is closing all of its stand-alone Beefeater, Brewers Fayre and Table Table restaurants, with many closing their doors this month.
Back in April, Whitbread announced that it plans to become a “pure-play hotel business focused on Premier Inn”.
In a statement made earlier this year, the company said: “This change will involve exiting all of our remaining branded restaurants which trade under brands including Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, a number of which will be converted into approximately 600 additional Premier Inn rooms, with the remainder expected to be sold as going concerns.
“The proposed changes announced today build on the success of our Accelerating Growth Plan, announced in 2024, which involved the conversion of over 200 branded restaurants to additional rooms and the creation of an integrated restaurant in each hotel.
"This format has proved highly popular with guests and under the proposal, it would be rolled out to all hotels where there is currently a branded restaurant.
“We recognise the impact of this proposal on colleagues who work at the affected sites.
"As a business which recruits around 15,000 people every year, we expect to be able to retain a significant proportion of those affected and will be looking to redeploy as many of our impacted colleagues as possible.
"However, we do anticipate that the proposed changes, which are subject to consultation, would result in a reduction of around 3,800 roles of a total UK, and Ireland workforce of around 30,000.”
In a statement made on social media last month, Brewers Fayre said: “From quick mid-week dinners to decades of family celebrations, it has been an honour to serve communities across the UK.
"We are so grateful for everyone who made our restaurants feel like home.
“We hope you’re able to join us at least once more to create more memories before we close on the 7 September.
“Thank you for everything.”