Whitbread grows its development team in Ireland as it doubles down on delivering its 5,000 bedroom target
Whitbread PLC, the UK’s largest hotel business and owner of Premier Inn, has strengthened its development team in Ireland as it continues to invest in delivering its growth ambitions in the country.
Emma O’Shiel has joined the business in a project and programme manager role to lead the construction of Whitbread’s pipeline of secured development sites in Ireland.
She arrives with more than 15 years’ experience delivering building projects for the Isle of Man Government and private clients and will report to Matt Gent, Whitbread’s development manager for Ireland.
Whitbread currently operates a network of six hotels in Dublin and Cork, offering its guests a choice of more than 1,000 bedrooms with a further 1,000 bedrooms in the pipeline. It has a medium-term growth target for 5,000 Premier Inn bedrooms across the country.
Matt Gent, Development Manager for Ireland, said:
“Emma comes with the experience we need take our expansion to the next level in Ireland. She will hit the ground running delivering our secured pipeline of locations and help me and our wider team appraise development opportunities for Premier Inn across Ireland. I’m looking forward to working closely with her as we work to achieve our goal of establishing a network of Premier Inn’s in Ireland that matches the quality and depth of our estate in the UK.”
Emma will initially take on a pipeline of three prime development sites in Dublin and a second location for Premier Inn in Cork, allowing Matt to focus on new site acquisitions across the country.
In May [2024] Whitbread released a revised network plan strategy for Ireland, which included new target locations for Premier Inn in Dublin City Centre as well as four Outer-Dublin locations where it is seeking to secure a presence.
Outside of the capital, Whitbread is targeting eleven locations which have strong leisure and business economies and are likely to experience a growth in visitor numbers. These include tourist hotspots such as Killarney, Kilkenny, Kinsale, Sligo, Westport and Tralee alongside the larger towns and cities of Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, and Wexford.
Emma O’Shiel, Project and Programme Manager, added:
“Whitbread’s flexibility as a development partner stood out when applying for the position. The business has a long track record of delivering its hotels itself or in partnership with private and public sector developers, and I’m excited by the opportunity to put my experience working for both types of organisations into practice in Ireland. Whitbread’s ambitions are set high in Ireland, and I can’t wait play a part in supporting the business to achieve its goals.”
Whitbread’s confidence for Premier Inn in Ireland is underpinned by an analysis of the positive performance of its trading hotels in the country, and an assessment of future hotel demand.
The company is predicting total consumer demand for hotel accommodation in Ireland will surpass 20-million-bedroom nights towards the end of the decade, driven by the country’s strong economy, low unemployment rate and a predicted rise in international visitors.
