Whitbread to raise prices on minimum wage hike

Whitbread one of Britain’s biggest employers, plans cost savings and will raise some of its prices to counter the substantial impact of enforced wage increases at its Premier Inn hotels and Costa Coffee businesses.

The British government announced a bumper pay increase in July, with the current £6.50 (€8.87) minimum wage set to rise to £7.20 for those aged over 25 from next April.

Renamed the “living wage”, the rate will grow over the following four years to £9.35 an hour, a far greater increase than Whitbread and other businesses had expected.