Leisure

Engaging people

Whitbread’s community investment programme was established 25 years ago and supports our objective of engaging our employees fully in the success of the business. During the past 18 months Whitbread’s community investment programme has undergone a major restructuring with ‘helping young people achieve their potential’ as its core theme. We’ve chosen to focus on youth, because tens of thousands of young people work for us, eat in our restaurants, stay in our hotels, and work out in our gyms. We intend to deliver our programme by working with a small number of partners who share our ambitions for young people, and who are a good strategic fit with one or more of our major brands.

Recent highlights include:

• the launch of the Whitbread Young Achiever awards celebrating the achievements of young people throughout the UK
• raising over £400,000 through David Lloyd Leisure and Marriott support for the Sport Relief campaign
• the various restaurants brands raising over £500,000 for Comic Relief’s 2003 Red Nose Day.
• 2003 saw the establishment of a new partnership between David Lloyd Leisure and the Sir Steve Redgrave Trust in a bid to raise significant funds to enhance the quality of children’s lives. Employees and members across David Lloyd Leisure’s 55 clubs got behind the six-week round Britain fund-raising relay
• the launch of the Golf Roots programme, which aims to engage children from inner cities who might not normally get the opportunity to play golf. A total of 20,000 inner city children, aged 9 to 12, will benefit from the programme.

The company also provides ongoing practical and financial support to employees in the form of matched or partial funding grants and time off to participate in community projects.