Brewers Fayre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Brewers Fayre | |
 |
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| Type | Public owned by Whitbread Plc |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1980 |
| Headquarters | Dunstable, Bedfordshire |
| Area served | United Kingdom |
| Industry | Hospitality |
| Products | Food and Beverages |
| Parent | Whitbread plc |
| Website | http://www.brewersfayre.co.uk/ |
Brewers Fayre is a chain of around 250 licensed "family" restaurants in the UK, owned by the Whitbread conglomerate. They serve traditional British food, such as steak and kidney pie, fish and chips, or roast chicken accompanied by alcohol.
Brewers Fayre prides itself on being a family restaurant but, interestingly, claim they are suitable for everyone. Many lager outlets have a "Fun Factory" where children are allowed to run around. The children's character Charlie Chalk was originally used as the company's mascot, but he has now been replaced by the firm's own Brewster the Bear.
For a period in the early 2000s, some Brewers Fayre outlets were rebranded as Brewster's, in order to differentiate between family-oriented pubs diners and those were more suited to adults. The brand was phased out in 2004, with all outlets returned to the Brewers Fayre brand.
Nearly all BFs are on the site of a Whitbread Premier Travel Inn (PTI) hotel. There used to be many standalone BFs, but in 2006 Whitbread agreen to dispose of the 239 standalone Brewers Fayre and Beefeater sites. These had traditionally lower revenues and as growth had stalled in them compared to the still-growing PTI sites, they were seen as an obstacle to sales growth in the company as a whole. Whitbread sold them to market rival Mitchells and Butlers, who plan to rebrand them in their very similar Ember Inn, Harvester, Toby and Sizzling chains. The standalones which were retained were on sites with development land for a new PTI - such as Lauriston Farm in Edinburgh.
[edit] Less Downmarket
Whitbread has started a substantial refurbishment program at some sites (eg "Moseley Park" in Birmingham and "The Newhouse" in Motherwell. These sites are called "segmented" sites, they are intended to have a more upmarket feel. For instance, the chain has standardised menus across the whole of the UK, which can be viewed on their website, but "Segmented" sites are trialling specialised, allegedly upmarket menus, offering more meals that are freshly prepared. These menus will eventually be rolled out across the entire brand, as Whitbread's refurbishment programme for the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre sites continues.
