roadside restaurant chain founded 1958 1958 original business founder sam alper headquarters diss norfolk number of locations 71 area served united kingdom key people graham sims chairman 2 revenue 65.772 m 2010 3 operating income 0.240 m 2010 3 profit 0.273 m 2010 3 total assets 21.270 m 2010 3 owner kout food group number of employees c. 1 100 2013 4 website www.littlechef.co.uk 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 . 5 6 the little chef brand has been in decline for many years largely due to a lack of investment a tired menu increased competition 7 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 . 8 contents 1 history 1.1 1958 1980 1.2 1980 2000 1.3 2000 2007 1.4 2008 present 2 menu 3 current locations 4 international 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit 1958 1980 edit an iconic little chef in nottinghamshire designed by sam scorer . this little chef has now closed and ceased trading . caravan manufacturer sam alper built and designed the first little chef modelled on diners he had seen in the united states . 6 opened in 1958 on oxford road reading it had just 11 seats . 6 the earliest little chefs were basic prefabricated constructions with room for up to 20 customers a staff of three to four and provision for car parking . 9 transport cafes of the period catered mostly to lorry drivers and bikers but alper wanted to serve the family market . 4 alper later sold portions of the company to catering industry veteran peter merchant who developed the concept through his merchant group which later merged with john gardner catering to form gardner merchant . 4 from 1965 the outlets began to be built in brick with room for about 40 customers by which time there were 12 outlets . 9 standard d cor and uniforms were brought in together with staff training . 9 later on they were built with room for some 60 customers car parking space was improved and sign boards and other identifying marks emphasised . 9 in 1968 gardner merchant became a subsidiary of trust houses by which time there were 25 little chef restaurants . 10 in 1970 trust houses merged with charles forte s hotel and catering empire to become trust house forte ; europe s largest hotel catering and leisure group . 9 11 by that time trust house forte had 44 little chef restaurants . 9 the takeover by forte gave little chef the capital and resources to expand rapidly . frustrated by planning laws forte sent teams out to well located transport cafes and offered the owners large cash incentives to sell and move out within the week so that forte could turn their restaurants into little chefs . 12 thus by 1972 the chain had expanded to 100 outlets . sites were a mixture of self service and waitress service though predominantly the former . 12 by 1976 there were 174 outlets and the first little chef lodge motel was opened . 10 in 1977 jubilee pancakes were added to the menu . 10 1980 2000 edit little chef and burger king in bilbrough near york a64 eastbound north yorkshire 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 11 little chef s main rival at the time in 1986 as part of the break up of imperial group . in 1990 the little chef lodges were rebranded as travelodge . in 1995 forte announced the end of the happy eater brand with all existing sites converted into little chef by 1997 . 11 little chef had a spin off brand called little chef express which forte developed in 1995 as a rival to fast food outlets . 5 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 . 5 however only five restaurants were ever built on the roadside and the idea was re developed 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 . 5 in 1996 the catering and broadcasting conglomerate granada successfully mounted a hostile takeover for the forte group . 11 13 sam alper sold his final stake in the company at this stage . 4 the welcome break chain was sold by granada the little chefs at those motorway service areas becoming a similar table service restaurant red hen . high prices earned the chain the nickname little thief . 14 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 . 15 aj s had originally been set up in 1986 by two happy eater directors following happy eater s sale to forte . 15 2000 2007 edit little chef in eastham merseyside in 2006 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 . 16 at about this time some little chefs began serving harry ramsden s meals 17 18 a cross branding exercise by compass who also owned harry ramsden s though this ended in june 2004 . 19 the private equity business permira bought travelodge and little chef from compass group in december 2002 for 712 million 20 forming a special purpose vehicle called tllc group holdings . 21 those little chefs at moto motorway service areas formerly the granada motorway service areas and owned 22 by compass until 2006 16 were owned by moto and operated as franchised outlets . 5 in august 2004 little chef announced it planned to change its logo to a slimmer version of fat charlie the chain s current mascot . 23 little chef s chief executive tim scoble said that this was the start of a re image programme for little chef and that the chain has become a little bit dated but now wishes to take it forward into the 21st century . 23 he also noted later on that we get accusations that he 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 . 24 however the idea was dropped after 15 000 customers complained . 24 in 2005 the company was sold to catering entrepreneurs lawrence wosskow and simon heath 21 for 58 million . 25 tllc kept hold of travelodge 26 and the people s restaurant group ltd was founded by the new owners of little chef however they continued trading under the same name . 27 in march 2006 the people s restaurant group sold 65 of its sites under a leaseback deal for 59 million 28 29 to israeli property group arazim . 30 in december 2006 it emerged that little chef was undergoing serious financial problems ; the business was said to be losing around 3m a year 31 32 struggling to keep up with rent payments 31 and had lost nearly half of its branches in five years . 32 furthermore laurence wosskow suffered a heart attack 33 and subsequent ill health earlier in the year and was unable to help turn the company around . 31 on 21 december little chef announced it were in urgent rescue talks with a group of american investors in the attempt to secure rescue funding . 33 34 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 . 34 at the time the people s restaurant group was being advised by kpmg s corporate recovery arm . 31 34 in december 2006 little chef was taken into administration 35 36 and the company was then rescued on 3 january 2007 by rcapital a uk private equity group which paid less than 10 million . 38 of the 235 branches were not included in the sale and were closed immediately ; 37 the remaining restaurants 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 agreements with the individual landlords . as all the franchised outlets at moto sites closed during 2008 2009 the chain was further reduced . several factors contributed to the decline of little chef including increased competition from other chains and years of under investment and neglect by numerous owners . from its inception until the mid 1990s little chef had relatively little competition from other chains . however by the early 2000s the business was seen to be in decline sometimes attributed to owners from granada onwards having extracted too much money from the business without investing in updating the format citation needed . britain s roadsides had become saturated by fast food restaurants such as mcdonald s kfc and burger king . granada opened several burger kings within or adjacent to their little chef sites as a response making little chef the largest burger king franchise in the uk . a further challenge to little chef was the rise of pub restaurants which catered both for the business and family markets . recently refurbished service stations began to offer additional choices such as marks & spencer simply food and coffee chains such as costa in place of little chef outlets which appealed to people not wanting to spend a long time over a meal . furthermore the construction of the motorway network meant that a roads along which little chef outlets were usually situated were no longer used for long distance travel . in 2005 it was announced that 130 underperforming restaurants were to be closed reducing the chain to 234 restaurants . prior to that however granada had been gradually reducing the number of restaurants from well over 300 at one time . during 2005 travelodge hotels ltd the new name for tllc made various announcements about the sale