Little Chef
Little Chef was founded in 1958, British restaurant chain, whose stores are mainly in British motorway - rest stops were.
history
Sam Alper opened the first Little Chef store in Reading, Berkshire . The caravan designer was inspired by so-called “road diners ” that he had previously seen in the USA .
In the late 1980s, Little Chef enjoyed great support from the English population, with merchants in particular among the guests. Little Chef was known for the good quality of the food, but the prices have always been above average compared to other rest stops. In addition, the typically British menu and the ambience of the restaurants, which are mostly located in typically British brick buildings, were not considered to be very exciting and conservative. From the 1980s onwards, the company was also faced with competition from fast food chains such as McDonald's , KFC , Burger King and Subway , which were now more and more frequent at rest stops .
From 2002 the company was owned by the private equity investor Permira . In 2005 130 of the 364 branches were closed. Little Chef shares were shortly thereafter sold to Peoples Restaurant Group Ltd. sold. Nevertheless, Little Chef was still considered the largest chain of rest stops in Great Britain with more than 20 million guests a year.
From 2007, attempts were made to upgrade the outdated image with the help of the star chef Heston Blumenthal , who designed new dishes and was accompanied by the TV station Channel 4 in a media-effective manner . However, these dishes were removed from the offer after a short time because they were unsuccessful. In the years that followed, the number of branches continued to decline, as they were closed or continued under a different name, and the brand changed hands several times.
On January 31, 2018, the Little Chef brand was discontinued and the last remaining restaurants were reflagged.
Web links
- Official website
- Permira
- Little chef really big: How a master chef saves the notorious British service station chain Little Chef
Individual evidence
- ^ A b John F. Jungclaussen: Great Britain: Small boss, big . In: The time . June 25, 2009, ISSN 0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed on March 28, 2018]).
- ↑ Heston Blumenthal's food wiped from Little Chef menu. Accessed March 28, 2018 (English).
- ^ Andrew Roberts: Little Chef: the end of the road for Britain's finest roadside cuisine? In: The Telegraph . February 2, 2018, ISSN 0307-1235 ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed March 28, 2018]).