About

Whitbread, the UK’s largest hotel and coffee shop owner, has expanded rapidly in the Middle East over the past two years. Whitbread’s Costa Coffee franchise (operating under the Americana Group brand) has been a huge success with Middle East consumers and a number of the company’s Premier Inn hotels have opened across the region with more planned for the coming months. Key to this expansion has been the cross-border licensing and real estate work conducted by Whitbread’s small but highly regarded legal team. Head of international legal Matthew Yates runs the Middle East operations from Dubai and brings a wealth of experience in the hospitality sector to the team’s activities. Whitbread’s revenues have trebled over the last five years, calling on its regional legal staff to handle increased volumes of complex work.