Whitbread, the hotels and restaurants operator, has announced job cuts of "less than three figures" from the combination of the two divisional managements of the businesses.

In addition, the group's logistics operation, which employs about 300 people, is expected to be outsourced and talks are under way with Kuehne + Nagel about a deal.

The reorganisation will take 12 months to implement and result in cost savings of £25 million a year, Alan Parker, the chief executive, said, but there will be a one-off exceptional cost of £35 million taken over the current and next financial years.

He said that most of the cost would result from the outsourcing of its logistics arm. All staff, 200 of whom are based at its Reading depot, would be offered employment with Kuehne + Nagel, he said.

The merger of the group's hotel and pub-restaurant operations would result in a "handful" of job losses, including Mark Phillips, restaurants managing director. The expanded division will be run by Patrick Dempsey, head of hotels.

The reorganisation follows the sale almost two years ago of 235 standalone Beefeater and Brewers Fayre outlets to Mitchells & Butlers, allowing it to focus on those eateries located next door to a Premier Inn.

Many analysts have predicted that Whitbread would one day sell the remaining 403 pub-restaurants. However, Mr Parker insisted this afternoon: "We believe in the joint sites model and I have no intention of selling any of them."

The news was contained in an interim management statement covering the 50 weeks to February 14.

Mr Parker said that trading had been resilient and that the full-year outcome, to be announced on April 28, would be "in line with our expectations".

Premier Inn, the budget hotel chain, saw like-for-like sales up 10.5 per cent. Occupancy was maintained at 79.2 per cent while the room rate was up 6 per cent.

It is on track to add more than 3,400 extra rooms this year and will open its first property in Dubai at the end of next month.

Like-for-like sales at the pub-restaurant business were up only 0.8 per cent, although that represented an improvement on the 0.4 per cent rise after 39 weeks. A new format, dubbed Table Table, is being trialled across a dozen sites and could be expanded to more of its Brewers Fayres.

The third business, the Costa coffee chain, was up 6 per cent like for like helped by 50 per cent jump in mince pie sales over Christmas.

Costa is the subject of an ambitious global expansion programme, and Mr Parker said its 1,000th store would open next month in Moscow's Pushkin Square.

The Whitbread boss said that, despite the economic uncertainty, the company was "in a good place", adding: "We're pleased we're at the large-scale value end of the market."

Shares of Whitbread were the biggest FTSE 100 riser, adding 86p to £13.12.

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