Moto Hospitality, branded as Moto, is a British service station operator which operates 59

motorway service station Motorway service areas in the United Kingdom and Ireland, also known as services or service stations, are rest areas where drivers can leave a motorway to refuel/recharge, rest, eat and drink, shop or stay in an on-site overnight hotel. The vas ...

s across the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It is currently the UK's largest service area operator.

History

Operations (2001–2020)

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

, who owned the chain of Granada motorway service stations, merged with

Compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...

in July 2000 to form Granada Compass plc. The plan was to combine the hospitality interests of the two businesses and hive off the media division, which was done by demerging the new group into Compass plc and Granada Media in 2001. Previously, Granada had acquired Forte plc in a £3.3bn hostile takeover on 24 January 1996. It sold its French ''Cote France'' service stations to Italy's

Autogrill Autogrill is an Italian-based, multinational catering company, which is controlled with a 50.1% stake by the Edizione Holding investment vehicle of the Benetton family. Autogrill runs operations in 30 countries, primarily in Europe and North Ame ...

in December 1997. The food and hospitality division of Granada was retained by Compass, which became part of its

Select Service Partner SSP is a British Multinational corporation, multinational contract foodservice company, with headquarters in London, England. It operates more than 2,800 branded catering and retail units at over 180 airports and 300 railway stations across 35 cou ...

(SSP) UK division, but ownership of the Granada brand and trademark passed to the new media company. The Granada name was retained on the service stations until 23 May 2001, when the 47 sites were rebranded as Moto. Upon rebrand, Compass originally intended to use the Moto brand across Europe. In 2003, they created a joint venture with Cremonini to introduce the Moto brand across Italy. In total, 31 Italian rest stops were rebranded Moto over a 3-year period. In 2007, Cremonini bought Compass' stake in the joint company, and rebranded the sites to their own brand, Chef Express. Briefly, in the early 2000s, there was also two French sites under the Moto banner. In 2006, Moto separated from Compass Group and SSP following successful acquisition by a consortium of investors.

Macquarie Bank Macquarie Group Limited () is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia (), Macquarie employs more than 17,000 staff in 33 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's ...

managed Moto until late 2015, when the company was sold to USS. In 2008, Moto opened a new service station on the A1(M) at

Kirk Deighton Kirk Deighton is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated north-west of Wetherby, to which it is contiguous, and near the A1(M). The village was in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and Wethe ...

near

Wetherby Wetherby () is a market town and civil parish in the City of Leeds district, West Yorkshire, England, close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire, and lies approximately from Leeds City Centre, from York and from Harrogat ...

, Yorkshire. Also in the same year, they purchased Winchester Services from Roadchef, rebranding the sites under their own name.

Redevelopment Project (2021–present)

Moto's second new build services, at M6 junction 1 in Rugby, opened on 30 April 2021. The site introduced a new logo and corporate style - the first full update in the company's history. Moto are currently in the development stage for their third new build service area at a site located near

Sawtry Sawtry () is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Sawtry lies approximately north of Huntingdon. Sawtry is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic ...

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

on the A1. In 2021, Moto became a franchisee of

Pret A Manger Pret A Manger (''prêt à manger'' is French for ''ready to eat'') is an international sandwich shop franchise chain based in the United Kingdom, popularly referred to as Pret, founded in 1983. As of December 2022, Pret had 434 shops in the UK, ...

and started adding stores to their busier MSA locations. In 2022, Moto invested £13.5m in refurbishing 5 of their MSA sites to the new logo/ branding, refurbishment of toilets/ shower facilities, customer seating areas and food outlets. All these sites had a KFC & Pret added to the food offering at each site. Sites upgraded included Ferrybridge, Reading, Tamworth, Stafford & Donington Park.

Facilities

Shops

Until 2007, Moto sites had an own-brand shop to sell products to travellers. After a trial of

WHSmith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...

at select sites was deemed successful, the brand was rolled out to most Moto sites, with some exceptions (Leeming Bar, Tiverton and Todhills). Also trialled were M&S Foodhalls, which were introduced in 2004 and now feature at most Moto locations.

Catering

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...

is at all but two Moto sites ( Todhills & Lymm). *

Costa Coffee Costa Coffee is a British coffeehouse chain with headquarters in Dunstable, England. Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by Sergio Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. ...

operate at all Moto service areas. *

Greggs Greggs plc is a British bakery chain. It specialises in savoury products such as bakes, sausage rolls, sandwiches and sweet items including doughnuts and vanilla slices. It is headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is listed on t ...

is at most Moto service stations. Moto also operates Greggs at four

Extra Extra or Xtra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * ''Extra'' (newspaper), a Brazilian newspaper * ''Extra!'', an American me ...

motorway services as well. *

KFC KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...

is available at select larger Moto sites. *

Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans c ...

operate stalls at most Moto locations. *

Pret a Manger Pret A Manger (''prêt à manger'' is French for ''ready to eat'') is an international sandwich shop franchise chain based in the United Kingdom, popularly referred to as Pret, founded in 1983. As of December 2022, Pret had 434 shops in the UK, ...

is available at busier Moto service areas. *

West Cornwall Pasty Company West Cornwall Pasty Company (styled as West Cornwall Pasty Co.) is a fast food chain in the United Kingdom specialising in making and selling pasties. The company was established in 1998 and has been owned by Mark and David Samworth since 2017 ...

now operates where all Upper Crusts used to be, except for Cherwell Valley, Wetherby and Reading Eastbound.

Other facilities

Barbershops

One site, Lymm, features a barbershop. Previously, Toddington and Leigh Delamere sites also opened but have since closed.

Betting arcades

In 1995, Granada thought that betting arcades would be useful at motorway services: *

Ladbrokes Ladbrokes Coral is a British gambling company founded in 1886. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. The business is split into two divisions, UK and International. UK operations are c ...

was the first brand used. Most outlets were closed in 2019. * Lucky Coin are Moto's own brand betting arcades. They appear at most sites. * Full Hou$e are another Moto brand betting arcade, replacing some outlets of Lucky Coin. * &Play are another own brand betting arcade, introduced in 2017.

Hotels

Most Moto locations have hotels: *

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, many of t ...

operate at 56 Moto sites. *

Days Inn Days Inn is a hotel chain headquartered in the United States. It was founded in 1970 by Cecil B. Day, who opened the first location in Tybee Island, Georgia. The brand is now a part of the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in Parsippan ...

are at two Moto sites: Wetherby and Winchester. Winchester Days Inn was opened by Moto but is operated by

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 ...

Petrol stations

The petrol stations at Moto sites are variously

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic p ...

or BP.

Play areas

Selected Moto sites feature an indoor or outdoor play area within or near the main building. Outdoor play areas used to be more common but have been removed from sites for various reasons. Indoor play areas were first introduced to two service areas, Leigh Delamere Westbound and Donington, in 2016. Another indoor play area would later open at Rugby in 2021.

Other operations

Moto operates various franchise outlets at some Extra MSA services. These include M&S Simply Food, Costa Coffee, West Cornwall Pasty Company, Krispy Kreme and Greggs.

Awards

Moto won awards for the quality of their internal training programme "Achieve In Moto" (AIM) at the Training Journal Awards in 2017. Moto won Gold in the category "Best Private/Commercial Programme" and also two Silver awards in the categories "Best Talent Development Programme" and "Best Operational Programme". Moto have won awards for the standards of cleanliness in their public toilets, winning the ' Loo of the Year Award' in 2006 (for the fourth year running).

Locations

* Barton Park -

A1(M) A1(M) is the designation given to a series of four separate motorway sections in England. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1, a major north–south road which connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capit ...

J56 *

Birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 ...

- M62 between J18 and J19 * Blyth -

J34 *

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a large historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its population currently stands at around 41,276 as of 2022. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies alon ...

- M5 J24 *

Burton-in-Kendal Burton-in-Kendal is a village and civil parish on the extreme southern edge of Cumbria, England. The parish contains around 660 houses and in the 2001 census had a population of 1,411, increasing at the 2011 census to 1,497. Historically with ...

- M6 between J35 and J36 northbound only * Cardiff West - M4 J33 *

Cherwell Valley The River Cherwell ( or ) is a tributary of the River Thames in central England. It rises near Hellidon, Northamptonshire and flows southwards for to meet the Thames at Oxford in Oxfordshire. The river gives its name to the Cherwell local ...

- M40 J10 *

Chieveley Chieveley is a village and large civil parish centred north of Newbury in Berkshire, close to the M4 motorway and A34 road. Chieveley services are within the parish. Geography A map of 1877 gave the area as . The landscape is of gently ro ...

- M4 J13, A34 *

Doncaster North Doncaster North is a constituency in South Yorkshire, England, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Ed Miliband of the Labour Party. From 2010 until 2015, he was Leader of the Opposition before he lost the 20 ...

- M18 J5, M180 *

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...

- M1 J23a, A42 * Dover Port - A2, A20, Dover ferry terminal *

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

- M5 J30 *

Ferrybridge Ferrybridge is a village in West Yorkshire, England. Ferrybridge lies at a historically important crossing of the River Aire which borders the North Yorkshire village of Brotherton. It is linked to other communities by the A1, which follows t ...

- M62 J33, also accessible from

Frankley Frankley is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire. The modern Frankley estate is part of the New Frankley civil parish in Birmingham, and has been part of the city since 1995. The parish has a population of 122. History Frankley is li ...

- M5 between J3 and J4 * Grantham North - A1, B1174 junction *

Heston Heston is a suburban area and part of the Hounslow district in the London Borough of Hounslow. The residential settlement covers a slightly smaller area than its predecessor farming village, 10.8 miles (17.4 km) west south-west of Charing ...

- M4 between J2 and J3 * Hilton Park - M6 between J10a and J11 *

Kinross Kinross (, gd, Ceann Rois) is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, around south of Perth and around northwest of Edinburgh. It is the traditional county town of the historic county of Kinross-shire. History Kinross's origins are connect ...

- M90 J6 *

Knutsford Knutsford () is a market town in the borough of Cheshire East, in Cheshire, England. Knutsford is south-west of Manchester, north-west of Macclesfield and 12.5 miles (20 km) south-east of Warrington. The population at the 2011 Census wa ...

- M6 between J18 and J19 * Lancaster - M6 between J32 and J33 * Leeming Bar -

J51 * Leigh Delamere - M4 between J17 and J18 * Lymm - M6 J20, also accessible from M56 *

Medway Medway is a unitary authority district and conurbation in Kent, South East England. It had a population of 278,016 in 2019. The unitary authority was formed in 1998 when Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with the Borough of Gillingham to for ...

- M2 between J4 and J5 *

Pease Pottage Pease Pottage is a village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the southern edge of the Crawley built-up area, in the civil parish of Slaugham. The village has a motorway service station, named after the village ...

- M23 J11 *

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

- M4 between J11 and J12 *

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

- M6 J1 *

Scotch Corner Scotch Corner is a Junction (road), junction of the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) and A66 road, A66 Trunk road#United Kingdom, trunk roads near Richmond, North Yorkshire, Richmond in North Yorkshire, England. It has been described as "the modern gate ...

J55 * Severn View - M48 J1 * Southwaite - M6 between J41 and J42 * Stafford Northbound - M6 between J14 and J15 *

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

- M9 J9, M80 J9 *

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

- M4 J47 * Tamworth - M42 J10 *

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authority area with borough status and unparished area in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The l ...

- M25 J30/J31, A13 * Tiverton - M5 J27 *

Toddington Toddington could be *Toddington, Bedfordshire **Toddington services, M1 motorway *Toddington, Gloucestershire **Toddington railway station Toddington railway station serves the village of Toddington in Gloucestershire, England. Since 1984 it h ...

- M1 between J11a and J12 * Todhills - M6 between J44 and J45 *

Trowell Trowell is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. It lies a few miles west of Nottingham, in the borough of Broxtowe on the border with Derbyshire. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,568, falling to 2,378 at ...

- M1 between J25 and J26 * Washington -

between J64 and J65 *

J46 *

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

- M3 between J8 and J9 * Woolley Edge - M1 between J38 and J39

Planned

* Sawtry -

J15

Notes

References

External links

Moto-Way
(official website)
Select Service Partner UK

Moto - Motorway Services Online

Reviews at Ciao!
{{UK Motorway Service Stations Catering and food service companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 2001 Retail companies established in 2001 Food and drink companies established in 2001 Hospitality companies established in 2001 Companies based in Bedfordshire