Dumbarton's Brewers Fayre restaurant closes down

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Dumbarton eatery has closed its doors for the final time.The Malt & Myre Brewers Fayre at Lomondgate was shut down on July 4 by owners Whitbread - who also own the neighbouring Premier Inn hotel.Both the Brewers Fayre and the budget hotel only opened in 2011, as the first part of a £65million redevelopment of the Lomondgate area.It was named by Dumbarton woman Marion Connelly as a tribute to the area’s rich whisky-making history, and the nearby area of Bellsmyre.It is not yet known how many jobs have been lost, with Whitbread saying that they could not share specific numbers but stressing ‘where possible it has aimed to retain staff’.News of the closures comes after Whitbread announced in April that its UK hotel performance had gone ‘from strength-to-strength’ - however the performance of some of its branded restaurants had been impacted by a reported drop in footfall from non-hotel guests.A spokeswoman for the firm said: “After many years serving the community we can confirm that the Malt & Myre has closed its doors.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank both the local community for their support over the years and our amazing team members.”Closure of the restaurant and bar could lead to the Premier Inn being further extended.The statement released by Whitbread continued: “Over the next 24 months we plan to replace around 112 of our lower-returning branded restaurants with integrated restaurants and use the vacated space to add new higher returning hotel rooms to help meet strong demand.”Dominic Paul, Chief Executive Officer of Whitbread, said: “When I joined Whitbread as CEO in January 2023, it was clear to me that we had a high-performing hotels business, with a strong platform for growth in both the UK and