Both The Starting Gate Hereford And Travellers Rest At Ross-on-Wye To Close.

[Hereford Voice]

Whitbread, the owner of Beefeater, announced plans earlier this year to close 126 of its "lower-performing" restaurants due to a drop in foot traffic at some sites.

A spokeswoman for Whitbread told the Hereford Voice that Beefeater locations in Hereford and Ross-on-Wye will close this week.

"After many years serving the community we can confirm the Starting Gate and Travellers Rest are closing their doors on July 5.

We are committed to working hard to enable as many as possible of our affected team members to stay with us by taking other vacancies across the business through recruitment."

Both restaurants are attached to Premier Inn hotels, also owned by Whitbread. Plans to run the Beefeater in Hereford as a Premier Inn restaurant for the time being have been confirmed, but only for the use of the hotel guests.

Whitbread, which operates more than 840 Premier Inn hotels in the UK (as well as a further 51 in Germany), has decided to close some of its less profitable food and beverage outlets in an effort to improve the overall business’ performance.