In Brief: Whitbread has appointed Stuart Hookins as estates director for the UK and Ireland, succeeding Simon Hobbs, who will retire Sept. 1, 2026.
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Stuart Hookins – Image Credit Whitbread
Hookins will report to Mark Anderson, managing director for property and international, and lead Whitbread’s estates, facilities and energy teams across the UK and Ireland.
He joins from Royal Mail Group, where he served as group director of property and facilities solutions from December 2022 to August 2026. He was responsible for an estate of more than 1,800 properties and led investment, acquisition and disposal programs.
Before joining Royal Mail Group, Hookins worked at The Co-operative Group from 2005 to 2022, progressing from head of acquisitions and disposals to managing director of property. He trained as a chartered accountant at KPMG before holding corporate finance roles at Siemens from 1999 to 2005.
Hookins has more than 25 years of experience in senior property leadership and corporate finance roles. He will take responsibility for Whitbread’s hotel and restaurant property portfolio, comprising more than 845 Premier Inn hotels and more than 86,000 trading bedrooms across the UK and Ireland.
Hobbs is retiring after nearly 20 years with Whitbread. During his tenure, he managed and developed the hotel and restaurant portfolio, oversaw transactions and worked on property initiatives, including an asset intensification program, sale-and-leaseback transactions involving selected trading hotels and management of underutilized land assets. He also held a role in Whitbread’s transition from a diversified leisure company to a hotel business focused on Premier Inn.
Whitbread’s Five-Year Plan, announced April 30, 2026, includes recycling £1.5 billion of freehold property by FY31. The plan also includes redevelopment, asset intensification and property portfolio management to support Premier Inn’s growth. Whitbread’s property estate is predominantly freehold and includes hotel and restaurant assets.
