Dominic Paul, chief executive, Domino’s Pizza Group is to replace Alison Brittain as the new chief executive of Whitbread.

Brittain has decided to retire from full time executive life at the end of the financial year 2023, with Paul to join the company early in January next year.

Paul, who joined the Domino’s board in May 2020, is an experienced senior executive, with a very strong operational and commercial record in the travel, leisure, and hospitality sector, read a statement from Whitbread.

“He led the business through the Covid pandemic and has delivered a strong period of sales growth and value creation and aligned all stakeholders behind a growth strategy for the future.”

He is well known to Whitbread and joins with a good understanding of the business having been a member of the Whitbread executive committee and managing director of Costa Coffee for three years, overseeing its significant growth in both the UK and internationally ahead of the sale of the business to Coca-Cola.

Paul will work his six months’ contractual notice and leave in December 2022. The board is now initiating a process to identify his successor and will provide an update in due course.

Adam Crozier, chairman, said: “We are delighted to welcome back Dominic to the Group as our new chief executive. Following an extensive search and thorough evaluation of high-quality candidates we are confident Dominic’s great track record of growing and transforming consumer brands in the UK and internationally will help to lead Whitbread in the next stage of the group’s development.

“I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Board and the Whitbread team to thank Alison for her leadership over the last seven years. She has guided the company brilliantly over that time: developing and then selling Costa for £3.9bn, growing and innovating our award-winning UK customer proposition, firmly establishing Germany to be a substantial engine of future growth, and latterly ably steering the Group and leading our 35,000 colleagues through the pandemic.

“The strong recovery under Alison’s leadership leaves Whitbread very well positioned as a strategic winner in the industry.”

Dominic Paul said: “I am delighted to have been selected to return and lead Whitbread, a business with a fantastic heritage and an exciting future both in the UK and internationally. Whitbread has a well-founded strategy, a very strong customer proposition, and significant opportunities for future growth. I am looking forward to working with Adam and the whole Whitbread team to deliver for our customers, teams, and shareholders.”

Paul said it has been a priviledge to be CEO of Domino’s, ”a company with a powerful brand, brilliant team and superb franchisees”. “Returning to Whitbread as CEO is the only job I would have left for at this stage.”

Alison Brittain, CEO, said: “It has been an enormous privilege to lead Whitbread during a period of significant expansion for our well-loved brands, in both the UK and in Germany. The business has recovered from the pandemic well ahead of expectations and is continuing to trade strongly and gain market share. We are well positioned for continued outperformance and future growth, and we have a clear strategy and a strong management team to deliver it.

“I will continue to be fully committed to the business over the next few months until it’s time to hand over the baton and I wish Dominic and the whole Whitbread team every success for the future”

Domino’s will report its interim results on 2 August 2022 and said it expects FY22 underlying EBITDA and EPS to be in line with current market expectations.