LONDON – 1,094 employees working for the UK’s leading hospitality company, Whitbread – owners of Premier Inn, Costa, Beefeater and Brewers Fayre – are celebrating this month thanks to the company’s annual “Sharesave” scheme, as they collectively made more than £6 million in profit.
Sharing in Whitbread’s success, employees who saved in the five-year scheme stand to quadruple their original investment, whilst those with the three-year option will more than double theirs. The option price for those people in the three-year scheme is set at £14.14 and for those in the five-year scheme it is £7.28.
With the share price now trading at around £37.50 on 3 February 2014 (the maturity date), those participants saving the maximum of £250 per month stand to enjoy around £69,000 on the five-year scheme and around £15,000 profit on the three-year scheme.
There were 895 participants in the three-year scheme saving an average of £51 per month and each enjoying over £3,000 profit. There were 160 people in the five-year scheme, with average monthly savings of £77 equating to profit in excess of £21,000 each.
Chris Thompson, Store Manager at Costa Chester Tesco Homeplus has been saving the maximum £250 per month in the five year scheme. He said: “This is potentially a life changing sum of money for me. I’m not planning on selling all the shares straight away as I want to benefit from the dividend and also any further increases in the share price, but I am planning on selling some to help pay for a family trip to New Zealand.
“I’m so excited. I’ve downloaded a share monitor app to my phone so I can check my shares everyday. I’ve been telling my team to join the scheme, even if it’s only ten pounds a month as it’s a win win!”
Andy Harrison, Whitbread CEO comments: “I’m really delighted for those Whitbread team members who stand to make a significant profit on the back of a sharp rise in our share price over the past few years. Our team members work tremendously hard delivering everyday outstanding service to our millions of customers and it’s great that they can personally share in the company’s success in this way.”
The scheme allows all employees to save between £10 and £250 per month and gives them the right to buy shares at the discounted offer price. Under the scheme, they can now choose to exercise their options and sell the shares; exercise their options and retain the shares, or simply get their money back.
Source: Whitbread
