hospitality founded 1960 headquarters newport pagnell england uk area served united kingdom except northern ireland key people rod mckie ceo products 35 service stations revenue 630m number of employees 4 500 parent appia investments website www.welcomebreak.co.uk welcome break is a company which operates 35 motorway service stations in the uk . it is the second largest motorway service area operator behind moto . contents 1 history 1.1 separately owned motels and hotels 1.2 split from trusthouse forte 2 facilities 2.1 hotels 2.2 catering 2.3 whsmith 2.4 fone bitz 2.5 welcome break gaming 2.6 ecotricity 3 logo 4 locations 4.1 m74 4.2 m11 4.3 m62 4.4 m4 4.5 m6 4.6 a50 4.7 m3 4.8 m5 4.9 m42 4.10 m1 4.11 m40 4.12 other 4.13 m25 4.14 m54 5 see also 6 references 7 external links 7.1 news items history edit the welcome break facility at birchanger services essex 2006 . opened in 1960 the service area at newport pagnell on the m1 motorway near milton keynes by motorway services ltd was the company s first service area under the forte name and was only the second service area to be constructed on the fledgling uk motorway network . the name welcome break came from a chain of rival restaurants to little chef created by allen jones . these restaurants eventually either became happy eaters or closed . the name was brought back to life when hanson trust used it to rename ross food s service stations . the company s portfolio was expanded to five motorway service areas during periods under the ownership of the imperial group and subsequently the hanson trust before being purchased by trusthouse forte in 1986 . under this deal the welcome break name was adopted across the entire estate with trusthouse forte s sixteen existing service areas re branded as welcome break . separately owned motels and hotels edit welcome break also operate days inn motels days hotel and ramada hotels at other sites other than their own at services and town city locations days inn peterborough services a1 m days inn cambridge services a14 days inn stevenage baldock services days inn winchester services ramada london stansted days inn cobham services m25 ramada wakefield m1 split from trusthouse forte edit in january 1996 the forte group was the subject of a 3.9 billion hostile takeover by the british media group granada . due to granada s existing major presence in the motorway services market a subsequent investigation by the monopolies and mergers commission ordered granada to sell 27 of the welcome break sites . the company was eventually bought by investcorp in 1997 for 476m . 1 investcorp then sold welcome break to appia investments in march 2008 for 500m . 1 facilities edit the main building at welcome break s telford services the facilities available at welcome break service areas varies at each site with most sites open 24 hours a day throughout the year . typically each service area comprises a caf or restaurant a retail outlet a hotel and a petrol station . all sites have whsmith burger king an eat in restaurant a coffee shop starbucks coffee and a petrol station shell or bp . hotels edit the majority of hotels at welcome break service areas are franchises of days inn or ramada ; many of these were once branded under welcome break s own brand welcome lodge the last of these at newport pagnell and charnock richard were rebranded to days inns in may 2009 and also took over operation of three former purple hotels at cambridge peterborough and stevenage in july 2009 each three have reopened as days inn taking its total to 26 . in september 2012 welcome break opened a days inn at the new cobham service area on the m25 and 2013 saw a rebrand of days hotel london north and days inn london stansted into ramada hotels in december 2014 welcome break purchased days hotel wakefield after a full refurbishment it was re opened as ramada wakefield in january 2015 . catering edit eat in was welcome break s own brand self service restaurant . however these have since been replaced with food courts featuring a selection of brands varying from location to location new to the welcome break facilities is subway opening 15 new units from january 2015 to may 2015 . needs update welcome break have recently when opened harry ramsden s a uk based fish and chip restaurant also offering a range of breakfast to eat in or take away . it s currently when at most sites . waitrose has franchise stores across many services including newport pagnell leicester hopwood park fleet keele warwick north and south oxford membury west corley north south mimms gretna gordano and cardiff gate . in may 2006 a branch of the international coffeehouse chain starbucks was opened on a trial basis at corley services on the m6 motorway . citation needed starbucks is now available in most welcome break services . some services have drive through starbucks in separate buildings . welcome break is a long standing kfc licensee operating kfc fast food restaurants at 24 of its service areas . 2 in may 2005 welcome break announced a deal with kfc designed to bypass tough uk motorway signage legislation . 3 uk law currently prevents motorway service area operators from displaying additional brand names other than their own company name on roadside signage . needs update to circumvent this restriction a new subsidiary company welcome break kfc was registered . burger king restaurants operate at all welcome break service stations except burtonwood and derby south . tossed in 1995 it was announced that they were going to add a mcdonald s to every one of the services but the process was stopped after just two because forte were acquired by granada now moto a deal which included welcome break and lost out to burger king being added instead . citation needed there are only two mcdonalds now at fleet services and woodall services . whsmith edit recently welcome break service areas have followed the industry wide trend towards partnership with high street brands . w h smith stores have been introduced at the majority of welcome break sites as a replacement for the traditional unbranded retail outlets . 4 initially launched as a trial store at the newport pagnell site in february 2007 w h smith stores have now been rolled out across the welcome break portfolio . 4 fone bitz edit fone bitz sell electronics across the motorway network and operate at most welcome break sites . fone bitz sell a range of mobile phone ipad ipod laptop electronic and car accessories in general . welcome break gaming edit welcome break gaming is a self branded betting arcade located at all welcome break sites except the welcome break operated days inn hotels and motels . ecotricity edit in july 2011 it was announced that the green energy provider ecotricity will be providing fast and normal electric vehicle charging stations at welcome break service stations linking london in the south with exeter in the west and edinburgh in the north . 5 logo edit welcome break logo until september 2006 . welcome break introduced a new company logo in september 2006 . the swan integral to the previous company logo has been removed . the new logo features a black background with the words welcome and break in green and white respectively . each site now also has a large mural depicting a local landmark unique to that site . many of these were commissioned from artist david fisher . 6 locations edit m74 edit abington gretna green m11 edit birchanger green m62 edit burtonwood hartshead moor m4 edit cardiff gate membury sarn park m6 edit charnock richard corley keele a50 edit derby m3 edit fleet featuring the scott mills bridge m5 edit gordano michaelwood sedgemoor northbound only m42 edit hopwood park m1 edit leicester forest east london gateway newport pangell woodall m40 edit oxford warwick north warwick south other edit peartree m25 edit south mimms m54 edit telford see also edit roadchef moto extra motorway service station references edit a b motorway services provider welcome break sold . caterer search . retrieved 11 july 2006 . kfc welcome break uk . welcome break joins kfc to bypass ad ban caterersearch 26 may 2005 . a b wh smith to open 33 travel stores at welcome break motorway service areas forbes.com 05 02 07 . http connevted.blogspot.com 2011 07 uks first electric highway announced.html david fisher somerset artist . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to welcome break . welcome break motorway services online welcome break news items edit times article march 2008 v t e welcome break abington birchanger burtonwood cardiff gate charnock richard corley derby south fleet gretna green gordano hartshead moor hopwood park keele leicester forest east london gateway membury michaelwood newport pagnell oxford sarn park sedgemoor northbound south mimms telford warwick woodall v t e food chains in the united kingdom casual dining angus steakhouse ask beefeater grill bella italia brewers fayre byron hamburgers caf rouge carluccio s chiquito damon s ed s easy diner frankie & benny s giraffe gourmet burger kitchen harry ramsden s harvester hungry horse la tasca little chef loch fyne restaurants nando s ok diner pizza hut pizzaexpress prezzo strada table table taybarns t.g.i. friday s toby carvery tony roma s wagamama wahaca wildwood kitchen zizzi fast food barburrito burger king chicken cottage chipotle mexican grill dixy chicken domino s pizza five guys kfc mcdonald s morley s papa john s pizza sam s chicken sbarro southern fried chicken subway taco bell tops pizza tortilla wasabi wimpy yo sushi baked goods auntie anne s cinnabon cooplands ditsch dunkin donuts eat greggs krispy kreme millie s cookies patisserie valerie pret a manger sayers spudulike upper crust the west cornwall pasty company coffee shops and tea rooms amt coffee betty s caff nero caff ritazza coffee 1 coffee republic costa coffee harris hoole starbucks dairy baskin robbins ben & jerry s kaspa s shakeaway pub chains all bar one chef & brewer o neill s scream pubs slug and lettuce walkabout wetherspoons yates s retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title welcome break & oldid 741149057 categories companies established in 1960catering and food service companies of the united kingdomcompanies based in milton keyneshidden categories engvarb from october 2013use dmy dates from october 2013wikipedia articles in need of updating from august 2016vague or ambiguous time from august 2016all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from july 2010commons category with page title same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent 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