Whitbread boss Brittain heads for exit

THE number of female chief executives in the FTSE 100 is set to fall when Alison Brittain leaves Whitbread.

the 57-year- old, who has decided to retire from full-time executive life, will depart from the premier Inn owner at the end of February.

that will reduce the number of female chief executives in the Footsie to nine.

She will be replaced by Domino’s pizza boss Dominic paul.

Brittain took over as chief executive in December 2015 and oversaw major moves including the £ 4bn sale of coffee chain costa to cocacola in 2018.

She also opened Whitbread’s first premier Inn in germany, where it now has 40 hotels and £35m annual sales.

Her departure was announced just weeks after she received a drubbing from shareholders over pay.

More than 38pc of voters at Whitbread’s annual general meeting rebelled against her £2.16m payout, which included a bonus of more than £1m – despite Whitbread reporting a £15.8m loss and taking £118m in taxpayer support.

the rebellion followed a similar uproar a year earlier when Brittain deferred a £729,000 bonus earned during the pandemic, a payment which she later scrapped.

She has been paid a total of £17.2m in her six years at the helm of the company.

Brittain’s next move will be closely watched. In an interview this month with the Sunday times, she said: ‘I’m a bit too energetic to sit in the garden, and I don’t think anybody in my house would welcome me being home full-time.’

yesterday, she said she would be ‘fully committed’ for the coming months before handing over to paul, who joins after two years in charge of Domino’s pizza chain.

Whitbread shares fell 3.9pc, or 102p, to 2542p.