Former Royal Carribbean senior vice-president of international Dominic Paul will replace Alison Brittain as chief executive of Whitbread at the end of the next financial year, in March 2023.
Currently chief executive of Domino’s Pizza Group, Paul was formerly a senior executive at Whitbread and managing director of Costa Coffee for three years before its sale to Coca-Cola.
Prior to that, he was with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, and previously held senior roles at easyJet, British Airways and British Midland Airways.
Paul said: “I am delighted to have been selected to return and lead Whitbread, a business with a fantastic heritage and an exciting future both in the UK and internationally.
“Whitbread has a well-founded strategy, a very strong customer proposition and significant opportunities for future growth.”
Brittain will “retire from full-time executive life” after eight years as head of the hospitality giant, which owns Premier Inn and Beefeater.
She 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 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.
“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’m 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’s time to hand over the baton and I wish Dominic and the whole Whitbread team every success for the future.”
Chairman Adam Crozier said he was “delighted” Paul would be returning to the company. “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,” he said.
“I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the board and the Whitbread team to thank Alison for her leadership.”