Responsible sourcing

Understanding where our products and services come from is necessary to ensure we are sourcing sustainably and respecting human rights throughout our supply chain. Our policies are crystal clear on this. We are incredibly proud of our strong supplier relationships and have clear and fair terms and conditions that we all work to.

People

We undertake significant due diligence on our suppliers, including a robust ethical audit programme to help confirm that all suppliers are working in-line with our standards. We have a clear commitment to respect the human rights of workers across our supply chains. Our risk assessment process consists of two key stages: inherent risk assessment and actual risk
assessment. During inherent risk assessment of 100% of our suppliers, we identify high-risk sectors and geographies within our supply chain. Once an inherent risk assessment is carried out, we move on to the actual risk assessment to identify high-risk suppliers.

For more details, please see our modern slavery statement.

Products

We have commodity specific sourcing policies for each of our key commodities which can be found here.

100% of our wild-caught fish served is Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified.

We’re proud to say that from 2025, 100% of our shell and liquid eggs are sourced from farms accredited by British Lion and Bord Bia (Origin Ireland Q-Mark).

Since 2020, all of our shell eggs have been sourced from cage-free hens. We’ve also worked closely with our suppliers to transition every egg ingredient in our products to cage-free. In 2024, we completed this journey with the final change in our Yorkshire puddings, achieving full cage-free status across all egg ingredients in line with our 2025 target. This means that all shell, liquid and ingredient eggs used in Premier Inn and our branded restaurants are cage-free.

We are RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) members. This means we have certified processes and systems to maintain the chain of custody of certified Palm Oil in our organisation. This certification supports sustainable palm oil production and supply. We have set a target for 100% of palm oil in our own recipe products to be RSPO-certified by the end of 2025.

In 2020 we became the first UK budget hotel chain to become members of Better Cotton (formally ‘The Better Cotton Initiative’). In collaboration with our laundry suppliers and Better Cotton we have begun to develop new ways of working to deliver sustainable cotton for rented linen and are committed to ensuring 90% of our bedding linen is sourced as sustainable cotton by 2025.

100% of our raw beef and lamb range is sourced in the UK and Ireland, where it is produced to a recognised farm assurance scheme.

100% coffee sourced in the UK is Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance certified.

Animal Welfare

Animal welfare is a core part of our values. Over the years, we’ve continually strengthened our approach by

Enhancing our Animal Welfare Policy
Introducing species-specific standards
Establishing an Approved Schemes List
Digitalising welfare outcome measures

All of our primary protein suppliers must meet the detailed standards outlined in our Animal Welfare and Antibiotics Policies. For each species, we apply tailored requirements to ensure their specific needs are met.

All suppliers of non-branded products intended for supply into the UK and Ireland are required to source beef, pork, lamb, broilers (chickens), ducks, turkeys, eggs, liquid dairy, wild-caught fish and aquaculture products from producers with a valid farm assurance as listed on the Whitbread Approved Schemes List. This is a minimum requirement for the products we source.

SBTi No-Deforestation Commitment

Whitbread commits to no-deforestation across its primary deforestation-linked commodity with a target date of December 31, 2025.

Responsible sourcing

People

Products

Animal Welfare

SBTi No-Deforestation Commitment

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