Little Chef

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Little Chef is a chain of roadside restaurants in the United Kingdom, founded in 1958 and owned by the UK private equity group RCapital. Its previous owners were The People's Restaurant Group Ltd, a company belonging to British catering entrepreneurs Simon Heath and Lawrence Wosskow, but which went into administration on 3 January 2007 ^[1]. Little Chef's headquarters are in Sheffield.

1 History
2 Cultural impact
3 Menu
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Caravan manufacturer Sam Alper opened the first Little Chef in Reading in 1958. It was modelled after roadside diners he'd seen in the United States. By the late 1960s, it had become part of Gardner Merchant, itself a subsidiary of Trust Houses, which merged with Charles Forte's hotel and catering empire in 1970 to become Trust House Forte.

By the 1980s, Little Chef was established as catering for a wide variety of travellers from sales representatives to family groups. Innovations in the 1980s included the opening of the Little Chef Lodge hotels alongside some Little Chefs (later rebranded as Travelodge) and the opening of Little Chefs at Trust House Forte motorway service areas. 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 as part of the break-up of Imperial Group. Under Forte ownership Little Chef and Happy Eater retained their separate identities.

In 1996 the catering and broadcasting conglomerate Granada successfully mounted a hostile takeover for the Forte group. Granada converted the Happy Eater chain into Little Chefs by the end of 1997, and opened Little Chefs at most of its motorway service areas. The Welcome Break chain was sold by Granada, the Little Chefs at those motorway service areas becoming a similar table service restaurant, Red Hen. In 2000 Granada merged with the catering group Compass Group Holdings to form Granada Compass plc, but the two demerged in 2001 leaving Little Chef as part of Compass. At about this time some Little Chefs began serving Harry Ramsdens meals, a cross-branding exercise by Compass who also owned Harry Ramsdens, though this ended in June 2004.

From its inception to the mid-1990s, Little Chef had relatively little competition from other chains of eating houses. In the early 2000s the business was seen to be one in decline, variously attributed to owners from Granada onwards having extracted too much money from the business without investing in updating the format and the infiltration of the roadside market by fast food groups such as McDonald's, KFC or Burger King. Granada and then Compass had opened several Burger Kings within or adjacent to their Little Chef sites. A further challenge to Little Chef was the rise of pub chains such as Wetherspoons in town centres, offering a standard menu aimed at the business customer during the day, and of roadside pub chains such as Brewer's Fayre which catered both for the business and family markets. Also, newly refurbished service stations proved to be very popular, offering more choice such as Marks & Spencer and the ever fashionable coffee houses.

But competition wasn't the only cause for the company's decline. As mentioned above, the format had changed very little. Restaurants had kept the 50's style of decor, and although this may seem quirky, it wasn't the case as many of them just looked like they had seen better days. Although the food was of good quality, only the breakfasts were freshly cooked. However, the prices kept rising, much to customers' annoyance. Furthermore, with the recent emphasis of healthy eating, customers have been reluctant to visit a Little Chef, unless for nostalgic reasons. These issues preventd Little Chef's reputation from improving. It is also true that motorists have 'moved on'. Many are no longer willing to sit down and spend a long time over a meal - they would rather grab a healthy snack to take out and get on with their journey.

The private equity business Permira bought Travelodge and Little Chef from Compass Group in December 2002 for £712m, forming a company called TLLC. Those Little Chefs at Moto motorway service areas - formerly the Granada motorway service areas, and owned by Compass until 2006 - are owned by Moto and operate as franchised outlets.

In 2004, Permira wanted to make the chef on the logo appear slimmer, to look like they were interested in healthy eating. However, this outraged the general public and the idea was abandoned.

In 2005 it was announced that 130 underperforming restaurants were to be closed, reducing the chain to 234 restaurants. 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 the chain was sold to The People's Restaurant Group Ltd, who planned to modernise the restaurants and introduce self-service. Changes introduced during 2006 included the opening of coffee shops under the name Coffee Tempo! within several larger branches. These 'grab and go' units were developed by Nick Smith, who joined Little Chef as development director after leading the design and implementation of the Wild Bean Café format at BP petrol stations, under the guiding hand of BP Development Guru Thomas Snape. Little Chef also introduced a takeaway menu; both initiatives were aimed to increase the appeal of the brand to customers unwilling to spend a long period waiting for table service.

In January 2007 it was reported that Little Chef was taken into administration^[2]^[3]

The company was rescued on the 3 January 2007 by RCapital, a UK private equity group, who have paid less than £10m. However, 39 of the 235 branches were not included in the sale, and were closed immediately ^[4] – the remaining restaurants are continuing to operate normally. Although it would seem that the general public is fond of the brand, development is needed, to get customers back through the doors, after years of underinvestment and neglect by companies who only wanted to make a quick profit.

[edit] Cultural impact

Little Chef was the eponymous subject of a song by Frazier Chorus in 1989. It also also known in some circles as 'Little Thief', a reference to its alleged poor value for money.

[edit] Menu

Traditionally, a staple of Little Chef's menu has been all day breakfasts. Main meals options include beefburgers, steaks, haddock or cod, all with chips. Pasta meals were introduced in the early 1990s. Salads are also available. For dessert, pancakes have always been the most important feature. There is also a childrens menu and a takeaway menu.

Prior to the company going into administration, the People's Restaurant Group had begun to modernise the Little Chef menu, introducing 'subs' and paninis, and aggressively cutting prices.

A special feature of Little Chefs has always been the availability of a free orange lollipop for each diner on leaving.