Family favourite Halifax pub and restaurant could close for good
A family-friendly Halifax pub and restaurant is at risk of shutting down.
The Water Mill Brewers Fayre, on Huddersfield Road at Salterhebble, is one of dozens across the country facing closure.
Its parent company Whitbread, which also owns Premier Inn, has announced the firm is to become a hotel-only business.
All of its Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants will either be converted into extra Premier Inn rooms or sold off.
A spokesperson for Whitbread said there are no more details available yet about what will happen to the Water Mill.
“Whitbread has announced that, as part of its proposed new five-year plan, it intends to become a pure-play hotel business focused on Premier Inn,” said the spokesperson.
“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 move follows Whitbread converting more than 200 other restaurants to additional rooms and creating an integrated restaurant for 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,” said the spokesperson.
“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.
"We will do all we can to support those colleagues affected.”