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Content:

Little Chef

MSO Home - Brands - Little Chef

An old Happy Eater

Little Chef sell fast food for the people who don't want to go to a fast food chain. A lot of them are closing down these days, largely because of people wanting one extreme (healthy food) or the other (Burger King). However, very recently things seem to be taking a turn for the best and a few knew Little Chefs have opened.

When Forte owned Little Chef, they devised a takeaway restaurant called Little Chef Express, which opened up in a few restaurants. These are now Burger Kings. Similarly, during the 70s Forte branded their Little Chefs with motels as Little Chef Lodge.

Little Chef had a rival, Happy Eater (pictured), which was bought by Forte in 1986 and the old directors went on to form AJ's. The only Happy Eater at a motorway service area was Ross Spur.

In the 1990s Granada (now Moto) owned Little Chef, Happy Eater and Travelodge, as well as Trusthouse Forte and its chain of motorway services, Welcome Break. Granada decided to convert all the remaining Happy Eaters to Little Chefs as they earnt more money, as well as building Little Chefs at most of their and Welcome Break's motorway services. They also built small services consisting of only a Little Chef and a Travelodge accross the a-road network. In 2002, Granada acquired the entire AJ's brand and converted them to Little Chefs for the same reason.

Today Moto, Trusthouse Forte, Welcome Break and Little Chef and Travelodge have all gone separate ways, and Moto got to keep their Little Chef outlets as they were franchised, but Welcome Break's weren't. As a result of this, Welcome Break had to remove all their Little Chefs and they chose to re-brand them as Red Hen.

Rather ironically, after Granada claimed that they earnt more money and later left them, Little Chef are facing their own financial problems.

Official website: Visit Little Chef's official websiteOpen link in a new window

Locations:

Little Chef operate at a few motorway service stations, they are:

They can also be found at these smaller a-road services: *

Former Locations:

It is thought that Little Chef used to operate at: *

* - Please note that a-road services are only included in these lists if they are covered in the Services List section of the site.

Comments and Reviews:

Showing the most recent responses only: for the full thread and the ability to edit your own posts, you need to view the topic in the forums.View the thread Post your comment
Author: Message:
Roadhog_001
I think Little Chef is going. Any brand which isn't fast food don't seem to be doing well off the road. Even Little Chefs that aren't off the motorway are closing.
PostPosted: 05 Aug 2006, 10:28
Ziathon
Rumour has it that Little Chef wont be a Moto brand for much longer. I know stafford norths little chef is closing in October and Hilton Parks wont be far behind. They are being replaced by a coffee bar. More info as it becomes avalible
PostPosted: 04 Aug 2006, 21:14
Admin
Post your comments and reviews for Little Chef here, or click hereOpen link in a new window to return to the Brands.
PostPosted: 24 Feb 2006, 18:32
Showing the most recent responses only: for the full thread and the ability to edit your own posts, you need to view the topic in the forums.View the thread Post your comment

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With thanks to Alan Simpson for the information used on this page.

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