Little Chef was a British chain of roadside restaurants; opened in June 1960 by Sam Alper who was inspired by American diners. The chain was famous for the "Olympic Breakfast" – its version of a full English breakfast – as well as its "Early Starter" and "Jubilee Pancakes". The restaurants were mostly located on A roads, often paired with budget hotels and petrol stations.
The chain expanded rapidly throughout the 1970s, with its parent company acquiring its only major competitor, Happy Eater, in August 1986. After all Happy Eater locations were converted to the Little Chef fascia in the late 1990s, the chain peaked with 439 restaurants. Little Chef began to face decline in the early 2000s, mainly due to over-expansion, meaning it could not properly invest in all of its locations, as well as competition from fast-food and pub chains. By the end of 2005, almost half of its locations had been closed.
In January 2007, the chain was rescued from administration and subsequently reduced to 196 restaurants. This was followed by another closure programme in January 2012 to reduce the chain to 94 restaurants. In February 2017, owners Kout Food Group sold the remaining 70 locations to Euro Garages who converted the buildings into Starbucks, Greggs, Subway or KFC franchises. After Euro Garages' licence to use the Little Chef name expired, the remaining 36 restaurants became EG Diner by February 2018, and were either converted or closed by the end of October 2018.
The defunct Little Chef brand is still owned by Kout Food Group; however, the trademark is now registered in Kuwait as the group is no longer operating in the United Kingdom.
History
Beginnings and Lockhart (1958–1970)
In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, American lunch room operator Arthur Valentine created the concept of selling small prefabricated diners through mail order. These were called Valentine Diners, and various models were manufactured in Wichita, Kansas, later becoming famous landmarks across the U.S. Route 66. In 1958, British caravan designer Sam Alper was travelling the United States, and saw Valentine's 'The Little Chef' model in Leedey, Oklahoma, creating the British version of the Little Chef concept upon his return home.
On 22 July 1959, Alper founded Little Chef Limited. The first prototype Little Chef diner was created in Francis the Builders Yard on Armour Road, in Tilehurst, Reading, by Raymond Torin and Walter Cardy. The first Little Chef eventually opened on 17 June 1960 on Oxford Road, Reading in the car park of the former Rex Cinema, it had just eleven stools, and was supplied by a company called Lockhart. On 8 July 1960, the West London Observer reported on the Reading diner, and mentioned that Little Chef had ambitious plans to expand across the country with their pre-fabricated diners, measured at 30 feet long by 11 feet wide.
Throughout 1960, Little Chef opened other roadside diners in Biggleswade, Bedford, and Sherborne, Dorset. There was also an attempt at a high-street location, located at 70 High Street, Bedford, though this closed only after a few months of trading. In October 1960, Little Chef expanded into Antrim, Northern Ireland with a site on Belfast Road, Lisburn. In March 1961, another Little Chef roadside diner was opened in Camberley, Surrey.
It is understood that in the 1960s through the existing relationship with Lockhart, Sam Alper and Little Chef would form an alliance with caterer Peter Merchant; Lockhart had previously acquired Merchant's catering business. Little Chef would then become part of Lockhart also. Merchant's catering background and experience would then help Little Chef to further expand its presence, including a short-lived opening in 1964 in London's Regent's Park.
By 1970, Lockhart had been acquired by Trust Houses hotel, restaurant, and catering conglomerate, with the sale including Little Chef.About us : Little Chef
Trust House Forte (1970–1995) In 1970, Trust Houses merged with Charles Forte's hotel and catering consortium to create Trust House Forte. The takeover by Forte gave Little Chef the capital and resources to expand rapidly. Soon, Trust House Forte had 44 Little Chef restaurants. As the success of Little Chef grew, standard décor and uniforms were brought in, together with staff training. Frustrated by planning laws, Forte began sending out teams to "well-located" transport cafes, offering the owners cash incentives to sell and move out "within the week" so that Forte could turn their restaurants into Little Chefs. Following this tactic, the chain, by 1972, had expanded to 100 outlets. In the 1970s, there were also two restaurants in France, both of which closed by 1976.
Sites were a mixture of self-service and waitress service, though predominantly the former. By 1976, there were 174 outlets, and the first Little Chef Lodge motel was opened. In 1977, "Jubilee Pancakes" were added to the menu. Little Chef outlets were opened at larger Trust House Forte service areas on motorways and trunk roads. In 1987, these service areas became known as Welcome Break after the acquisition of the smaller Welcome Break group of motorway service areas and the Happy Eater roadside restaurants, Little Chef's main rival at the time, in 1986, as part of the break-up of the Imperial Group.
In 1990, the Little Chef Lodges were rebranded as Travelodge. In 1992–3, two sites were opened in the Republic of Ireland. In 1995, Forte announced the end of the Happy Eater brand, with all existing sites converted into Little Chef by 1997.
Little Chef had a spin-off brand called "Little Chef Express," which Forte developed in 1995 as a rival to fast-food outlets. The first Express outlet was at the Markham Moor service station (A1 North), though only as an addition to the existing Little Chef menu there. Only five restaurants were ever built on the roadside, and the idea was redeveloped when Little Chef was taken over by Compass, with the Express take-outs being set up in food courts, including one in the Eurostar terminal.
Granada (1995–2000) In 1996, catering and broadcasting conglomerate Granada successfully mounted a hostile takeover for the Forte group. The Welcome Break chain was sold by Granada, with the Little Chefs at those motorway service areas becoming a similar table-service restaurant, branded as Red Hen. High prices earned the chain the nickname "Little Thief".
In 1998, Granada bought AJ's Family Restaurants, another Little Chef rival, from the Celebrated Group and converted all of its fifteen sites to Little Chefs. AJ's had originally been set up in 1986 by two Happy Eater directors, following their sale to Forte.
Compass (2000–2002)
In 2000, Granada merged with the Compass Group to form Granada Compass, but the two demerged in 2001, leaving Little Chef as part of Compass. At about this time, some Little Chefs began serving Harry Ramsden's meals, a cross-branding exercise undertaken by Compass, who also owned Harry Ramsden's, though this serving ended in June 2004.
Permira (2002–2005) The private equity investment company Permira bought Travelodge and Little Chef from Compass Group in December 2002 for £712 million, forming a special purpose vehicle called TLLC Group Holdings. The Little Chefs alongside Moto service station, formerly named Granada motorway service areas and owned by Compass until 2006, were owned by Moto and operated as franchised outlets.
In August 2004, Little Chef announced a plan to change its logo, to a slimmer version of "Fat Charlie," the chain's mascot. Little Chef's chief executive Tim Scoble said that this was "the start of a reimage programme for Little Chef" since the chain "has become a little bit dated", but now wishes to "take it forward into the 21st century". CEO Scoble added, "We get accusations that [Fat Charlie]'s overweight and a lot of people have also written in to say it was a small child carrying hot food, which they said was dangerous". However, the idea was dropped after 15,000 customers complained.
In 2005, it was announced by Permira that 130 under-performing restaurants were to be closed, reducing the chain to 234 restaurants. Prior to that, Compass had been gradually reducing the number of restaurants, from well over 400 at one time. During 2005, Travelodge Hotels Ltd (the new name for TLLC) made various announcements about the sale of some or all of the restaurants, until, in October 2005, the chain was sold to The People's Restaurant Group Ltd, who planned to "modernise" the restaurants and introduce self-service.
Also in 2005, the five Little Chef restaurants in Ireland were sold off to new operators, and the Little Chefs were rebranded. The two Dublin ones became "Metzo" restaurants, while the three others Eddie Rocket's restaurants.
The People's Restaurant Group (2005–2007) In October 2005, Little Chef was sold to The People's Restaurant Group (owned by catering entrepreneurs Lawrence Wosskow and Simon Heath) for £58 million, but with Permira retaining Travelodge.
Upon purchasing the chain, Wosskow travelled to 220 of the 234 restaurants that were trading and spoke to both customers and staff at each location. Wosskow ultimately discovered that the buildings, facilities and equipment at every location needed major upgrades. As well as this, Wosskow and Heath learned that the existing Burger King franchises were trading well, but that a grab-and-go concept was also needed to compete with emerging takeaway businesses at forecourts.
In March 2006, The People's Restaurant Group sold 65 of its sites under a leaseback deal for £59 million to Israeli property group Arazim. The purpose of this deal was to generate enough funds to reinvest into upgrading the existing sites. Soon after this deal was launched, Little Chef opened its own coffee shop brand, "Coffee Tempo!" within several larger branches. These grab-and-go units were developed by Nick Smith, who had joined Little Chef as development director after previously leading the design and implementation of the Wild Bean Café format at BP petrol stations. Little Chef also introduced a takeaway menu.
The summer of 2006 saw poor weather which affected trading, as well as Wosskow suffering a near-fatal heart attack. As a consequence, Wosskow was told by doctors to avoid any stressful working environment and was forced to step away from the business entirely.
In December 2006, it was reported that Little Chef was undergoing serious financial problems; the business was said to be losing around £3 million a year and was struggling to keep up with rent payments. On 21 December, Little Chef announced it was in "urgent" rescue talks with a group of American investors, to secure funding. It had been suggested at the time that PricewaterhouseCoopers was on standby to act as administrators for the company; however, a source close to the company was quoted as saying, "We are still very hopeful that this situation can be resolved." At the time, The People's Restaurant Group was being advised by KPMG's corporate-recovery arm. On Christmas Eve 2006, Little Chef was taken into administration.
RCapital (2007–2013) On 3 January 2007, Little Chef was rescued from administration by the private equity group RCapital, which paid "less than £10 million." Of the 235 branches, 38 were not included in the sale and were closed immediately, while the remaining ones continued to operate normally.
By December 2007, a number of sites not leased from Travelodge or Arazim, Little Chef's two main landlords, closed, as Little Chef had not been able to reach an agreement with them. All the franchised outlets at Moto sites closed down between 2008 and 2010, many of which being replaced by Costa Coffee.
In April 2008, RCapital recruited Ian Pegler to lead as the CEO of Little Chef. Pegler had previously worked for Little Chef and Happy Eater under Trust House Forte.