Whitbread: routines and resource building on the path from brewer to retailer

This study investigates the UK former family firm, Whitbread, and its transformation from traditional brewer to leading leisure retailer comprising two main business lines, Costa Coffee and Premier Inn hotels. An unexpected regulatory intervention in 1989 all but ended the centuries-old vertically integrated model of the UK brewing industry, of which Whitbread was an important member. The major brewers were challenged to find alternative...