Whitbread has appointed Domino’s Pizza Group chief executive Dominic Paul as its next chief executive, replacing Alison Brittain in the role.
The company said Brittain had “decided to retire from full-time executive life” at the end of the 2023 financial year. Paul will join the business in early January next year.
It marks Paul’s return to the group, having previously served as managing director of Costa Coffee and a member of Whitbread’s executive committee for three years until 2019. During that period, he oversaw its growth in both the UK and internationally ahead of the sale of the business to Coca-Cola.
Before that, Paul was senior vice president of international at Royal Caribbean Cruise Line where he led the business through a period of growth. His extensive experience in the travel and leisure industry also includes senior roles at easyJet, British Midland and British Airways.
Paul said he would lead Whitbread as it heads into an “exciting” future in the UK and internationally. “Whitbread has a well-founded strategy, a very strong customer proposition, and significant opportunities for future growth,” he added.
Adam Crozier, chairman of Whitbread, said: “Following an extensive search and thorough evaluation of high-quality candidates, we are confident Dominic’s great track record of growing and transforming consumer brands in the UK and internationally will help to lead Whitbread in the next stage of the group’s development.
“I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the board and the Whitbread team to thank Alison for her leadership over the last seven years. She has guided the company brilliantly over that time: developing and then selling Costa for £3.9bn, growing and innovating our award-winning UK customer proposition, firmly establishing Germany to be a substantial engine of future growth, and latterly ably steering the group and leading our 35,000 colleagues through the pandemic. The strong recovery under Alison’s leadership leaves Whitbread very well positioned as a strategic winner in the industry.”
Brittain said: “It has been an enormous privilege to lead Whitbread during a period of significant expansion for our well-loved brands, in both the UK and in Germany.
“The business has recovered from the pandemic well ahead of expectations and is continuing to trade strongly and gain market share. We are well positioned for continued outperformance and future growth, and we have a clear strategy and a strong management team to deliver it.
“For the last seven years I have been consistently impressed and humbled by the hard work and commitment of our very talented teams and their passion for providing brilliant experiences for our guests every day and I am immensely grateful to them for everything that they do. I will continue to be fully committed to the business over the next few months until it is time to hand over the baton and I wish Dominic and the whole Whitbread team every success for the future.”
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