Britain’s biggest winemaker uncorks a record-breaking year as chief executive James Pennefather sticks to his audacious target of capturing 1 per cent of the global champagne market by 2035.

Chapel Down, Britain’s largest winemaker, has sold more than a million bottles of English sparkling wine in a single year for the first time, a watershed moment in its bid to seize 1 per cent of the global champagne market by 2035.

The Kent-based producer, listed on London’s junior Aim market and backed by the billionaire Lord Spencer of Alresford, said the million-bottle haul equates to roughly 0.4 per cent of champagne’s worldwide market share. James Pennefather, who took the helm as chief executive last year, expects that figure to climb to 0.7 per cent by the end of the decade.

Pennefather said the company’s long-term ambition was anchored in the available acreage across its native Kent. “We certainly do have options to get there faster, but it also slightly depends on what happens to the wider champagne market,” he said.

While champagne has historically been the preserve of formal celebrations, Pennefather argued that English sparkling wine was redrawing the boundaries of the category. “One of the real strengths of Chapel Down and English sparkling wine is that we’ve expanded the number of occasions on which people are drinking high-value sparkling wines,” he said. “That gives us confidence that we are also expanding the category as a whole.”

The company farms more than 1,000 acres of vineyards across the south-east of England, producing both still and sparkling wines. Its growing brand profile has been bolstered by partnerships with Ascot, The Boat Race and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Results for the year ending 31 December 2025 lay bare the appetite for home-grown fizz. Group revenues climbed 19 per cent to £19.4 million, fuelled chiefly by a 38 per cent surge in off-trade sales through supermarkets to £9.4 million on the back of a 5 per cent rise in listings.

On-trade sales, those flowing through pubs, bars and restaurants, edged up 5 per cent to £2.6 million, helped by new account wins. International revenues jumped 49 per cent to £1 million, lifted by the firm’s tie-up with Jackson Family Wines in the United States and a higher profile at British airports and St Pancras International station.

The performance pushed Chapel Down back into the black, with pre-tax profits of £469,000 compared with a £1.4 million loss the previous year. Buoyed by a strong start to 2026, the board reaffirmed guidance for net sales of £22.1 million, in line with City consensus.

Pennefather conceded that the conflict in Iran was a watch-point for the business, although the Middle East accounts for only a “small” share of revenues. “We haven’t seen any immediate impact,” he said, “but a sustained increase in fuel costs could have an impact on profitability.”

Elsewhere, investors raised a glass to Carlsberg after the Danish brewer posted its first quarterly volume rise in a year, helped by its push into soft drinks. The world’s third-largest brewer, which counts Kronenbourg, Skol and Somersby cider among its stable, reported a 2.8 per cent lift in total organic volumes during the first quarter, with growth across every region. Soft drinks volumes leapt 10 per cent, driven in no small part by its £3.3 billion takeover of Britvic, while beer volumes nudged 0.4 per cent higher.

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Chapel Down toasts million-bottle milestone in race to challenge champagne

Premier Inn owner Whitbread is to scrap its chain of branded restaurants and recycle £1.5 billion of hotel freeholds through a sale-and-leaseback programme, placing 3,800 jobs at risk as the FTSE 100 group tears up its five-year plan in response to mounting cost pressures and a restless activist investor.

Britain’s largest hotel operator has been hunting for ways to lift returns and protect margins after the autumn Budget left it nursing a sharp rise in business rates and employer national insurance contributions. Pressure has been compounded by US activist Corvex Management, which has urged the board to launch a strategic review after a prolonged spell of share price underperformance.

Unveiling the outcome of its business review on Thursday, the company set out a new five-year roadmap targeting a £275 million uplift in annual profits and £2 billion of shareholder returns. Investors gave the plan a frosty reception: shares slumped 6 per cent, or 151p, to £22.34 in early trading.

Central to the overhaul is the extension of the £500 million restructuring of Whitbread’s food and beverage arm. Two years ago, chief executive Dominic Paul launched the so-called “accelerating growth plan”, converting 112 Beefeater and Brewers Fayre sites into 3,500 new bedrooms and offloading a further 126 restaurants. The group will now go further, replacing all 197 of its remaining branded outlets with what it described as “a more efficient integrated restaurant” format. The shift, expected to deliver a return on capital of between 15 and 20 per cent by 2031, will knock up to £160 million off food and beverage sales this year as sites transition.

The property strategy marks an equally significant pivot. Whitbread, which currently owns the freeholds of roughly half its hotels, will recycle £1.5 billion of property to fund future growth and trim net capital expenditure by more than £1 billion over the next five years. The move will reshape the company into a majority-leasehold business, with freehold ownership falling to between 30 and 40 per cent of the estate.

Paul defended the rebalancing as a pragmatic response to “significant cost increases in the form of business rates and national insurance, as well as the implied market discount of our inherent value”. He added: “Owning a significant proportion of our property is a unique strength which powers the growth of Premier Inn while supporting our resilience as a business, underpinned by a strong balance sheet. But we can improve our approach. We will refocus our capital spend and recycle more of our freehold real estate, driving increased margins and returns, reducing our capital intensity and increasing cash returns for shareholders.”

The strategic reset accompanied a set of full-year results that underlined why the board feels the need to act. Revenue for the 12 months to the end of February was broadly flat at £2.9 billion, in line with City forecasts, while pre-tax profit tumbled 19 per cent to £298 million after £130 million of impairment charges linked to the restaurant restructuring. The group held its full-year dividend at 97p, with a final payout of 60.6p per share.

For the wider hospitality sector, Whitbread’s retreat from its branded restaurant heritage and its tilt towards a leaner, leasehold-heavy model is likely to be read as a bellwether. With business rates revaluations, employer NICs and stubborn wage inflation continuing to bite, even the largest operators are concluding that capital-light growth and aggressive cost discipline are no longer optional.

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Whitbread axes branded restaurants and puts 3,800 jobs at risk in £1.5bn Premier Inn shake-up

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