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Content:
Do You Remember?
MSO Home - Brands - Do You Remember?
This section of the site takes a look at brands which can no longer be found on the motorway. Do we miss them? I'll let you decide that one.
The Body Shop
It used to be very common at Moto services, but then it suddenly died, with WH Smith taking over.
Spar
The newsagent made a short appearance at RoadChef services.
Halfords
Another one which was very common at Moto services but then suddenly died in the early millennium. It's quite surprising that it didn't last longer, after all a motoring business is one of the few things you'd expect to find on the roadside.
The Sock Shop
A small stand selling clothing which used to be found at most Moto services. Quite what the point of it was we'll never know, how often is it that people lose their socks on the motorway?
Malongo Café & Entrempts
The original Extra coffee shop and waitress restaurant respectively, now replaced by several high street chains.
Red Hen
When Granada acquired Welcome Break, they gave all their services a Little Chef and a Travelodge, as Granada had ties with them. However, when they sold them in 1996 Welcome Break were forced to create their own replacements, hence Welcome Lodge and Red Hen. Red Hen was a sit-in restaurant and in 2004 all the outlets became Coffee Primo Lounges.
Cafe Forte & Café Primo
The early nineties name for Coffee Primo, Cafe Forte had to go when Forte and their owners Granada sold Welcome Break. Instead the name Café Primo was brought in, becoming Coffee Primo in 2006.
Le Munch & Delifrance
Le Munch is a snack shop at four Extra services, as well as Tibshelf and Winchester, which were partially owned by Extra. It became Delefrance, a French bakery. In 2007 all Delifrance units were replaced with LP4, with the exception of Tibshelf and Winchester, which were closed altogether.
Happy Eater
This is covered on the Little Chef page.
Rock Island Diner
They used to have a network of '50s rock-and-roll-themed diners accross the country, although I don't think there are any around now. There were only ever two at motorway services: inside Stafford (North) and outside Tamworth. Both of these were introduced in 1996 and became Little Chefs in 1998. It's thought that it was introduced at Tamworth on a trial basis and was deemed a success, with several more sites on the drawing board, but plans were changed when Granada got hold of the Little Chef brand.
Cafe Continental
RoadChef's coffee shop before it brought in Costa Coffee.
Café Kenco
I don't remember this one!
La Brioche Doree
It sold French baked produce at the larger Welcome Breaks until 2001. They also made a short appearance at Lancaster, where they took in an average of £1000 a day.
Harry Ramsden's
This iconic fish and chip shop used to be at 30 Moto services, but as the company has slowly shrunk all the service station units have been closed. It had a waitress service at Exeter, which it kept for a while. There is still a Harry Ramsden's restaurant in the adjacent Travelodge.
It suffered the same shortfalls as many other brands: it was bought by Granada in 1999, who added it to most of their services alongside Little Chefs, then lost it when Compass and Moto split, with Compass taking most of Granada's brands. An average meal at a service station Harry Ramsdens costed the high side of £7!
Foodfayre & onRoute
Two of RoadChef's restaurants, with onRoute services approximately from 2002-2006. They now use RestBite.
Granada Country Kitchen Restaurant & Granada Shopping
Two of Granada's self-branded facilities used at their services.
Sleep Inn
Extra's hotel chain of choice, until 2008 where they were all re-branded as Purple Hotels.
The Granary, Granary Express & Food Connection
Two of Welcome Break's own-branded self-service restaurants, with the former running throughout the 90s and the latter replacing it and running until 2006, where EAT IN took over.
Rabbit
Rabbit provided a national network of cordless telephone and base stations, from Hutchinson Telecom. They had a number of units at a variety of services from all the main operators. They could also be found at town centres, restaurants and petrol stations, and they were popular throughout the 90s. Their death was obviously down to the success of the mobile phone.
Julie's Pantry & Julie's Express
Andy remembers this one, saying that "the staff all had to wear dodgy green dungarees, and the logo was not too dissimilar to that of American burger chain, Wendy's."
Piazza d'Oro & Wendy's
A coffee shop introduced to First services in 1999, and led to a 20% increase in sales.
In a similar vein, around this time fast food chain Wendy's was introduced to Bolton West and Magor.
AJ's
AJ's was a family restaurant founded in 1986 by former Happy Eater directors Allen Jones and Jane Pickard. They had up to 20 sites on a-roads in a similar vain to Little Chef, before they were picked up by Granada. Granada hoped that this would rival Welcome Break's use of Little Chef, but after they introduced eight AJ's to service stations Granada acquired, amongst other things, Little Chef and Welcome Break, so they decided to phase out AJ's and introduce Little Chef to most of their services.
Around this time, AJ's had hoped to have 50 restaurants, but they blamed the recession for this target not being met. Instead, they sold four sites to McDonalds. They were then sold to The Celebrated Group who intended to convert all the restaurants to Starvin Marvin's, but they only changed two at Chichester. Granada got hold of the entire brand and changed them all to Little Chefs.
With thanks to Adrian Atkins and Alan Simpson for the information used on this page.