Brewers in expansion plans - commercial mortgages

02 May 2008

In news which may interest those with commercial mortgages, brewer Whitbread is looking to increase its commercial property usage by increasing its number of outlets.

The firm is looking to expand via an increase in its number of restaurants, a doubling of the size of its Costa Coffee operation and a 50 per cent increase in its Holiday Inn portfolio over the next five years at a cost of £1.5 billion, Property Week reports.

It announced the plan after reporting a 26.3 per cent rise in pre-tax profits up to the end of February this year, figures to which the sale of assets including David Lloyd Leisure, TGI Friday and a share in Pizza Hut contributed.

Whitbread is not the only company looking to expand into new commercial premises.

It has been revealed that Tesco is set to move into a new 1.2 million sq ft distribution warehouse that will be built at Teesport near Middlesbrough, following the signing of an agreement with site owner PD Ports.

Work on the new site is due to be started this summer and the warehouse up and running by autumn 2009.