PUBS and hotels group Whitbread yesterday announced plans to leave its London head office and create about 8,000 jobs.
The company said it would recruit the staff as part of plans to double its investment in new sites in the next four years to between £150m and £200m a year.
A Whitbread spokesman said the group would need about 5,000 people at 100 pub restaurants being opened by its Brewers Fayre and Beefeater chains, giving it about 500 pub restaurants.
The group would also take on about 2,000 staff for five new David Lloyd Leisure Centres a year over the four years and 1,000 workers for 50 Costa Coffee outlets.
The news emerged as Whitbread announced an £800m programme of asset disposals, including the sale of its historic former headquarters building in Chiswell Street, in London, on the site of the original Whitbread brewery founded in 1742.
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