Charles Carmine Forte, Baron Forte (26 November 1908 – 28 February 2007) was an Italian-born Scottish hotelier who founded the leisure and hotels conglomerate that ultimately became the
Forte Group
Forte Group plc was a British hotel and restaurant company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Granada in 1996. Its head office was in the London Borough of Camden.
...
.
Early life
Charles Forte was born as Carmine Forte in
Mortale, now Monforte,
Casalattico
Casalattico (Neapolitan language, Campanian: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Frosinone in the Italy, Italian region of Lazio. The village is located about southeast of Rome and about east of Frosinone.
It is home to a summer ...
, in the province of
Frosinone
Frosinone (, local dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is located about south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of the ...
, Italy on 26 November 1908, eldest son of Rocco Giovanni Forte and Maria Luigia, daughter of Michelangelo Antonio Forte. His parents were distantly related.
[Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 1, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 1472][Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2005-2008, ed. Lawrence Goldman, Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 387] He emigrated from Italy to Scotland at the age of four with his family.
He attended
Alloa Academy and then
St. Joseph's College, Dumfries
St Joseph's College in Dumfries, South West Scotland, is a Roman Catholic secondary school. It began as a Catholic boys' boarding school run by Marist Brothers.
History
St Joseph's College was founded in 1875 as both a boarding school and th ...
as a boarder, followed by two years of studies in Rome.
Early career
After Rome, Forte rejoined his family, who had moved to
Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmix ...
, where his father ran a café with two cousins. Charles' main training at the age of 21 came in
Brighton, where he managed the Venetian.
At 26, he set up his first "milk bar" in 1935, the Strand Milk Bar Ltd.
Soon he began expanding into catering and hotel businesses. At the outbreak of World War II, Forte was
interned
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
in the
Isle of Man
)
, anthem = "O Land of Our Birth"
, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg
, mapsize =
, map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe
, map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green)
in Europe ...
due to his Italian nationality, but he was released after only three months.
After the war, his company became Forte Holdings Ltd and bought the Café Royal in 1954.
In the 1950s, he also opened the first catering facility at
Heathrow Airport and the first full motorway service station in the UK for cars at
Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, on the
M1 motorway
The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...
in 1959. He purchased the Hungaria Restaurant in Lower Regent St. in 1955.
Later career
![Grave of Charles Forte in West Hampstead Cemetery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Grave_of_Charles_Forte_in_West_Hampstead_Cemetery.JPG)
Trust Houses Group Ltd and Forte Holdings were merged in 1970 to become
Trust House Forte
Forte Group plc was a British hotel and restaurant company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Granada in 1996. Its head office was in the London Borough of Camden.
...
or THF. Through mergers and expansion, Forte expanded the Forte Group into a multibillion-pound business. His empire included the
Little Chef
Little Chef was a chain of restaurants in the United Kingdom, founded in 1958 by entrepreneur Sam Alper, who was inspired by American diners. The chain was famous for the "Olympic Breakfast" – its version of a full English – as well as it ...
and
Happy Eater
Happy Eater was a chain of restaurants in England and Wales. Founded by Sir Michael Pickard in 1973, the chain wanted to compete against the British roadside restaurant category killer at the time, Little Chef, who would end up absorbing it in ...
roadside restaurants,
Crest
Crest or CREST may refer to:
Buildings
*The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York
*"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York
*Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...
,
Forte Grand
Forte or Forté may refer to:
Music
* Forte (music), a musical dynamic meaning "loudly" or "strong"
*Forte number, an ordering given to every pitch class set
*Forte (notation program), a suite of musical score notation programs
*Forte (vocal gr ...
,
Travelodge
Travelodge (formerly TraveLodge) refers to several hotel chains around the world. Current operations include: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and several countries in Asia. However, ma ...
and
Posthouse hotels Posthouse may refer to:
*Post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. ...
, as well as the wine merchant Grierson-Blumenthal and a non-controlling majority stake in the
Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August ...
.
The Grierson-Blumenthal stake became a legally "forced" acquisition by the group. It had been a personal holding of Charles Forte and fellow directors of the group, supplying liquor to Forte restaurants and hotels at substantial personal profit, until the prejudice to shareholders was realised in the late 1970s (including possible prosecution under the
Companies Act) which obliged its acquisition as a subsidiary.
Forte was the CEO from 1971 and chairman from 1982 (when his son
Rocco
Rocco or Rocko is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:
First name
* Rocco Baldelli (born 1981), American Major League Baseball player and manager of the Minnesota Twins
* Rocco Botte (born 1983), American actor a ...
took over as CEO) of the Group. Happy Eater and the five
Welcome Break
Welcome Break is a British motorway service station operator that operates 35 motorway service stations in the UK. It is the second-largest motorway service area operator behind Moto. It also operates hotels and motels. It is a subsidiary of ...
major road service outlets were bought from Hanson Trust PLC on 1 August 1986. In the 1990s, the company increased its nominal capital and agreed to the public listed companies compliance regime to become Forte Group plc.
Forte passed full control to his son Rocco in 1993, but soon the plc was faced with a hostile takeover bid from
Granada. Ultimately, Granada succeeded with a £3.9 billion
tender offer
In corporate finance, a tender offer is a type of public takeover bid. The tender offer is a public, open offer or invitation (usually announced in a newspaper advertisement) by a prospective acquirer to all stockholders of a publicly traded corp ...
in January 1996, which left the family with about £350 million in cash.
On 28 February 2007, Forte died in his sleep at his home in London, aged 98.
He is buried in
West Hampstead Cemetery
Hampstead Cemetery is a historic cemetery in West Hampstead, London, located at the upper extremity of the NW6 district. Despite the name, the cemetery is three-quarters of a mile from Hampstead Village, and bears a different postcode. It is j ...
.
Honours and awards
Forte was
knighted by
The Queen Mother
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
in 1970 and created a
life peer on 2 February 1982 as Baron Forte, of
Ripley in the County of
Surrey. He was also a knight of the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
.
Family
In January 1943, Forte married Irene Mary, daughter of Giovanni Chierico, of Venice; her family ran a delicatessen on
Wardour Street
Wardour Street () is a street in Soho, City of Westminster, London. It is a one-way street that runs north from Leicester Square, through Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street. Throughout the 20th century the street became a ...
,
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develo ...
. Lady Forte had been apprenticed to a
Mayfair couturier, where she learned sewing and gained an appreciation of quality materials. After her father's death when she was 17, she ran the family shop for three months whilst her mother was in Italy; it was destroyed by a bomb during the
Blitz
Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to:
Military uses
*Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign
*The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War
*, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...
in 1940.
From the 1950s, Forte lived with an extended family including his parents and children at Greenway Gardens in
Frognal
Frognal is a small area of Hampstead, North West London in the London Borough of Camden. Frognal is reinforced as the name of a minor road, which goes uphill from Finchley Road and at its upper end is in the west of Hampstead village.
History ...
,
Hampstead, London.
They attended services at the
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
St. Mary's Church in nearby Holly Lane,
Hampstead.
Together, they had six children, five girls and a boy:
* The Hon. Sir
Rocco John Vincent Forte (b. 1945), who was knighted in 1995. On 15 February 1986, he married Aliai Giovanna Maria Ricci in Rome. They have three children.
* The Hon.
Olga Forte CBE (b. 1947), who was married firstly to the late Count Alessandro Polizzi
and secondly, in 1993, to The Hon.
William Shawcross
William Hartley Hume Shawcross (born 28 May 1946, in Sussex, England) is a British writer and commentator, and a former Chairman of the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
Education
Shawcross was educated at St Aubyns Preparatory School ...
. Olga had two children with Alessandro:
**
Alexandra Polizzi
Alessandra Maria Luigia Anna Polizzi di SorrentinoBurke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage 2003, vol. 1, p. 1472 (born 28 August 1971), better known as Alex Polizzi, is an English hotelier, businesswoman, and television personality. Since 200 ...
, a
hotelier
A hotel manager, hotelier, or lodging manager is a person who manages the operation of a hotel, motel, resort, or other lodging-related establishment. Management of a hotel operation includes, but is not limited to management of hotel staff, bu ...
and the presenter of
Channel 5's ''
The Hotel Inspector
''The Hotel Inspector'' is an observational documentary television series which is broadcast on the British terrestrial television station, Channel 5, and by other networks around the world.
In each episode, celebrated hotelier and businesswo ...
''
**Charlotte Polizzi (b.1973), who married TV celebrity
Oliver Peyton
* The Hon. Marie Louise Forte (b. 1950), who married Robert Alexander Burness and had two children.
* The Hon. Irene Forte (b. 1956), who married US Ambassador
John Danilovich
John Joseph Danilovich (born 25 June 1950) is an American business executive. He has also held roles as a senior United States government executive, diplomat, and ambassador, and he is currently secretary general of the International Chamber of ...
and had three children.
* The Hon. Giancarla Forte (b. 1959), who married Michael Ulic Anthony Alen-Buckley and had two children.
Irene, Lady Forte died 12 September 2010,
[The Telegraph, 14 September 2010, "Notices"] and she is buried with her husband.
Lord Forte's family came from Mortale (later renamed Monforte in his honour),
in the Lazio region of
Southern Italy, where he retained the family home.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forte, Charles
1908 births
2007 deaths
Forte, Baron
Life peers created by Elizabeth II
Knights Bachelor
20th-century Scottish businesspeople
Italian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Italian Roman Catholics
Scottish people of Italian descent
Scottish Roman Catholics
British hoteliers
People educated at St Joseph's College, Dumfries
People educated at Alloa Academy
People interned in the Isle of Man during World War II
Forte family