Whitbread, owner of the FTSE 100 Premier Inn hotel chain, has begun the search for a successor to Adam Crozier, its chairman.
Sky News has learned that headhunters working for Whitbread have begun searching for potential candidates for the position.
Crozier, who has headed the company since 2018, is expected to step down sometime in the next 12 months, although he will not be “timed out” under the company’s governance guidelines until 2026.
Under his leadership, Whitbread has been radically reshaped, selling its Costa Coffee subsidiary to Coca-Cola in 2019 for nearly £4bn.
The company has also seen an activist campaign led by Elliott Advisers, while Crozier also coordinated the appointment of Dominic Ball, its chief executive, following the retirement of Alison Brittain.
Whitbread is now involved in a plan to sell a number of its Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants as it seeks to focus on expanding Premier Inn.
It recently said it sees the potential to grow the network from 86,000 bedrooms in the UK to 125,000 over the next decade or so.
One of Britain’s most experienced boardroom figures, Crozier now chairs BT Group and Kantar, the market research and data company backed by Bain Capital and WPP Group.
He previously ran the Football Association, ITV and, in between, the Royal Mail Group, which included the Post Office during his time in charge.
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Crozier appeared as a witness in the investigation into the Horizon IT scandal earlier this year.
On Tuesday morning, Whitbread shares were trading at around 3,083p, giving the company a market value of around £5.5bn.
Whitbread declined to comment.