Whitbread breaks up Brewers Fayre chain in £10m rebranding initiative

Whitbread is splitting up its 380-strong Brewers Fayre chain of family pub restaurants in a £10m brand overhaul.

More than 120 Brewers Fayre houses will be rebranded as family-oriented Brewsters. Although they will be initially dual branded, the Brewers Fayre name is expected to be dropped at a later date.

The remainder of the estate will continue to operate as Brewers Fayre, but with a stronger focus on adult diners.

The new venues will feature supervised play areas with “ParentCam” CCTV to allow parents to watch their children play while they have a drink.

Children will also be provided with security-tagged tabards -Âsleeveless jackets – that will trigger an alarm if they wander too far from the play areas.

The new play areas will also have Sony PlayStation consoles and ice-cream machines that will allow children to create their own flavours.

Brewers Fayre’s Charlie Chalk fun factories will be phased out and a new character, Brewster the Bear, will be introduced as the public face of the brand.

The new identity has been created by branding consultancy Corporate Edge. It will be rolled out from this month.

Whitbread restaurants marketing director Katharine Smith says: “The change to Brewsters will differentiate us from our competitors in the family sector, leaving the existing Brewers Fayre brand to dominate the adult pub restaurant market.”