Summary report and accounts

Summary remuneration report

The full remuneration report is set out on pages 10 to 18 of the Directors' Report and Accounts. This summary report states Whitbread's remuneration policy and the aggregate directors' remuneration for 2008/09.

• Introduction
• Questions and answers

Whitbread is a people business and its success is dependent on the skills and enthusiasm of the people who work in our businesses. It is important that our employees are appropriately incentivised and rewarded to continue to deliver outstanding service to our customers and value to our shareholders.

This year we have restructured the remuneration report with the intention of making it more user-friendly and I hope that you will find this new structure helpful. Immediately below this introduction you will find a summary of key facts and information about Whitbread's remuneration policy and the TSR graph. This is then followed by a section of questions and answers. The usual tables outlining directors' remuneration, pension arrangements and share scheme participation are in the full remuneration report. In view of the economic environment we have made some changes to our remuneration policy for 2009. The highlights are listed below:

• Senior executives, including the executive directors, will not receive a salary increase in 2009;
• The level of bonus executive directors can earn this year has been reduced. The on-target bonus has decreased from 87.5% to 77% of salary and the maximum bonus has decreased from 175% to 167% of salary;
• The range at which bonus is payable compared to budgeted profit has been widened and the level of performance for maximum payment has been significantly stretched above budget;
• The EPS targets for the 2009 LTIP awards have been set without reference to the Retail Price Index and at levels that require considerable growth over our 2009/10 budget; and
• The Committee has established a shareholding guideline for senior executives. It believes that key executives within Whitbread should have a significant level of shareholding to align them with the Group's shareholders. Executive directors will be required to build a shareholding of at least 100% of salary within five years and senior executives at least 50% of salary.