Little Chef
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Roadside restaurant chain |
| Founded | 1958 (original business) |
| Founder | Sam Alper |
| Headquarters | Diss, Norfolk |
|
Number of locations
|
66 |
|
Area served
|
United Kingdom |
|
Key people
|
Graham Sims (Chairman) |
| Revenue |
 £65.772m (2010) |
|
£0.240m (2010) |
|
| Profit |
-£0.273m (2010) |
| Total assets |
 £21.270m (2010) |
| Owner | Euro Garages LTD |
|
Number of employees
|
c. 1,100 (2013) |
| Website | www |
Little Chef is a chain of roadside restaurants in the United Kingdom, founded in 1958 by entrepreneur Sam Alper, and modelled on American diners. It specialises in the "Olympic Breakfast", its version of a full English and "Jubilee Pancakes". The restaurants are mostly located on sites on A roads, often paired with a Travelodge motel and a petrol station. They used to be on motorways in Moto Services but were removed in 2009.
The chain expanded rapidly throughout the 1970s and 1980s, largely organically, although in 1986 it acquired Happy Eater, its only major roadside competitor. It peaked in numbers in 1999 - 2000 with 439 restaurants, but restructuring has seen this reduced to 71. The Little Chef brand has been in decline for many years, largely due to a lack of investment, a tired menu, increased competition, and predominant use of motorways rather than A-roads for long-distance journeys.
Little Chef has been owned by six different companies since its mid-1980s heyday. It was owned by Trusthouse Forte from the 1970s, who were taken over by Granada Hospitality, a division of Granada plc. then being 'spun out' into Compass, who themselves sold the chain to the private equity firm Permira. They subsequently divested the chain to The People's Restaurant Group, who in turn sold the chain to the business turnaround specialists RCapital. Planned and reactive investment in the fabric and infrastructure of the chain ended with the sale from Forte, which may explain why many of the interiors appear to date from this, early 1990s, era. In July 2013 RCapital sold LittleChef to the UK arm of Kuwaiti-owned Kout Food Group. In February 2017, Kout Food Group sold Little Chef units along with other roadside units but the Kuwaiti based company retains the Little Chef name.
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Wikipedia