Whitbread PLC is one of the leading players in the U.K. leisure industry, concentrating in the early 21st century on restaurants and coffee shops, hotels, and health and fitness clubs. Whitbread's roots, however, were in brewing. Founded as a single brewery, the company grew to become one of the most prestigious of London's older breweries, with its history closely paralleling that of the Whitbread family, which retained continuous control of the company from 1742 to 1992. Whitbread began to diversify in the early 1960s. Its long involvement in the pub industry led to a deeper delving into the restaurant sector, with a key development being the 1974 launch of the Beefeater casual dining chain. The company later began opening outlets of two U.S.-based chains--Pizza Hut and T.G.I. Friday's--in the United Kingdom and acquired the Costa Coffee chain in 1995. During this same period, Whitbread developed into the number two hotelier in the United Kingdom by creating the Travel Inn chain in 1987 and gaining the U.K. rights to the Marriott brand in 1995. The company entered the health and fitness sector in 1995 through the purchase of the David Lloyd Leisure brand. In the early 21st century, Whitbread has shifted its focus to these newer areas of operations, breaking with its history by selling off first its brewery operations in 2000 and then its pubs in 2001.