What if Manchester United became a cricket team? It could use Old Trafford in the summer as well as the winter. It could use the loyalty it has built up among fans to ensure substantial crowds; and it could deploy its organisational skills in crowd control and event management. And what if, a year or two later, it gave up on football altogether, to focus on cricket? Weird or what?
Diversification on that scale is exactly what Whitbread plc has done in recent years. After more than 200 years as a major brewery and pub owner, today’s Whitbread has nothing to do with beer. It runs Costa Coffee and the Premier Inn chain of hotels. Its strategic thinking has been brilliant, as has its timing. Today, beer sales are falling and the pub industry is in disarray. But coffee bars are still on the rise worldwide, as is Premier Inn’s niche as a low-priced hotel chain.
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