Whitbread has confirmed company chairman Richard Baker will be retiring from the board at the next financial year end, February 28th, having completed nearly nine years service on the board, including the last four years as chairman.

He will be succeeded by Adam Crozier, currently the senior independent director.

Crozier has extensive and broad experience as chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi, the Football Association, the Royal Mail and most recently ITV, where he served as chief executive until June 2017.

He joined the Whitbread board in April 2017 and became senior independent director in September 2017.

Baker said: “As I now approach my ninth Whitbread year end, we are executing our strategic plan to build a bigger and better Whitbread for the benefit of all stakeholders.

“We have a well-established chief executive and executive team, a refreshed board, and considerable momentum in delivering this plan.

“This aligns with a personal intention I had, earlier last year, to progressively scale back my business responsibilities, so now is the time to hand over the chair.

“Adam has had a long and successful executive career and I am pleased the board has selected such a strong candidate to lead Whitbread through its next era of development.

“It has been a privilege to work for Whitbread during such a time of growth and success.

Hosting the recent 275th year celebration was a proud and poignant moment for me, given how very few companies achieve such an extraordinary milestone.”

Crozier was chief executive of ITV from April 2010 to June 2017.

He was recently replaced in that role by Carolyn McCall, former chief executive of easyJet.

During his time as chief executive, Crozier transformed ITV into a global media player of scale, delivering consistently good growth and with increasing emphasis on international content creation and distribution.

Prior to ITV, he was chief executive of Royal Mail, where he led its modernisation and transformed it from a heavily loss-making position to profitability.

He has also been chief executive of the Football Association, between 2000 and 2002, as well as joint chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi from 1995-2000.

Crozier commented: “Whitbread has two great brands in Premier Inn and Costa, with 50,000 colleagues delivering terrific customer service every day.

“We have a very strong management team and an exciting plan to continue to deliver growth in our core UK businesses, whilst developing our international business through growth in Germany, China and Costa Express. 

“I am delighted to become chairman of Whitbread and to help steer the company through the next chapter of its long history. 

“I would also like to thank Richard on behalf of the whole Whitbread team for his wisdom, enthusiasm and commitment during his nine years on the board, during which time the company has grown earnings each year and created significant value for shareholders.”