(Reuters) -British hotel group Whitbread reported a 14% drop in its annual profit on Thursday, hurt by the UK’s rising costs of living and a growth revival strategy that targeted underperforming restaurants in the country.
The Premier Inn owner reported an adjusted pretax profit of 483 million pounds ($641.5 million) for the year ended February 27, down from last year’s 561 million pounds.
The company, which owns more than 900 hotels across the UK and Germany, is facing significant headwinds in its core UK market as high inflation and rising living costs led to consumers cutting back on discretionary spending.
The company is closing 238 underperforming branded restaurants and turning them into hotel rooms to combat weak growth at its UK inns.
($1 = 0.7529 pounds)
(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job and Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)
