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Roadchef Motorways Ltd [1]
Company typePrivate
IndustryHospitality
FoundedJuly 1973 (July 1973)
HeadquartersNorton Canes services, UK
Area served
UK
Key people
Simon Turl (Chief Executive)
Revenue£200,000,000
Number of employees
2000+
ParentAntin IP
WebsiteRoadchef

Roadchef is a company which operates 30 motorway service areas in 21 locations in the UK. It is the third largest motorway service area operator, behind Moto and Welcome Break and followed by Extra).[2]

In September 2014 it was announced that owners Delek Group were selling Roadchef to Antin for £153m.[3]

History

Roadchef was founded in July 1973 by Lindley Catering Investments and Galleon World Travel.[4][2] The company was originally family owned but in November 1995 was sold to a management team and its most recent change of ownership was to Antin Infrastructure Partners.[5]

Over the years Roadchef have acquired a portfolio of 21 sites. A large expansion occurred in 1998 when Roadchef agreed to purchase Blue Boar Group and Take A Break for £80 million and thus proceeded to integrate these acquisitions into an enlarged Roadchef Group. At the time, Blue Boar was the fourth largest operator of motorway services areas in the UK with three operational sites and one development site. The acquired Watford Gap site was the first motorway service area to be opened in the UK in 1959 and is one of the UK’s best known sites. A few years ago (according to Google Finance), "Roadchef Motorways was one of the largest Motorway Services Area (MSA) operators in the UK, with 21 sites representing 24% of the market and serving some 60 million visitors each year."[6]

Roadchef recently announced a multi-million pound refurbishment programme[7] and their newly refurbished Clacket Lane services on the M25 is one of the largest sites in the UK. [citation needed]

Locations

Roadchef operate the following services: [citation needed]

Facilities

Roadchef motorway service areas have varying facilities but despite this all sites provide two hours free parking, toilets and food 24 hours a day, seven days a week.[8]

Hot Food Company (Restaurant)

Available at three Roadchef service areas (Clacket Lane, Sandbach and Strensham) it was designed to reflect changing customer demands as less time is spent in the restaurant. It offers similar food to Restbite (Restaurant) but utilises counter service as opposed to a free-flow self-service environment. This is so as to save space and reduce queues.[9][10]

The Burger Company

This own-brand fast food outlet is available at some Roadchef service areas and replaced the failing Wimpy chain. It is a quick fix until the sites are to be all refurbished to McDonalds outlet of which Roadchef is a fairly recent franchisee.[11][12]

McDonalds

This company came to many Roadchef service areas as part of their £12,000,000 refurbishment plans.[13]

Pizza Hut Express

Pizza Hut now have only one motorway outlet which is found at Strensham Northbound only after their other branches closed.[14][15]

Subway

A branch of the Subway sandwich chain can be found at Strensham Northbound only (in the forecourt).[16] This is just their second motorway outlet.[17]

Costa Coffee

Courtesy of Costa, Italian coffee (along with other drinks, snacks and sandwiches/toasties) is served at all Roadchef service areas. The replacement of an own-brand coffee shop with a high street name was pioneered by Roadchef in 2007 whilst also pioneering advertising brands such as Costa on motorway signage through a legal loophole. Moto followed soon after (also using Costa) and later Welcome Break utilised Starbucks.[18][19] Roadchef are currently refurbishing and expanding their Costa outlets as part of their £12,000,000 refurbishment project.[20]

Soho Coffee Co

This was introduced to Strensham Southbound during their 2008 refurbishment.[21]

WHSmith

WHSmith originally replaced all of Moto's own-brand shops after a successful trial at Toddington and this was copied by Welcome Break and eventually Roadchef.[22]

Cotton Traders

Cotton Traders currently have 6 outlets in RoadChef services. Strensham services were the first to gain a Cotton Traders.[23][24]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/roadchef-about-us.html
  2. ^ a b Motorway Services Online - Operators
  3. ^ "Delek Group to sell Britain's Roadchef for $250 million". Reuters. Thomson Reuters. 14 September 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  4. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/roadchef-about-us.html
  5. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/roadchef-about-us.html
  6. ^ Roadchef Motorways Limited - Google Finance
  7. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/roadchef-about-us.html
  8. ^ http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/MSA_Policy
  9. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/our-brands-hot-food-company.html
  10. ^ http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Hot_Food_Co
  11. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/our-brands-the-burger-company.html
  12. ^ http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/The_Burger_Company
  13. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/roadchef-about-us.html
  14. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20110927222453/http://www.roadchef.com/our-brands-pizza-hut.html. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2011. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Pizza_Hut
  16. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/our-brands-subway.html
  17. ^ http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Subway
  18. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/our-brands-costa.html
  19. ^ http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Costa
  20. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/roadchef-about-us.html
  21. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/our-brands-soho-coffee-company.html
  22. ^ http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/WHSmith
  23. ^ http://www.roadchef.com/our-brands-cotton-traders.html
  24. ^ http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Cotton_Traders

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