Roadchef is a company which operates 21
motorway service areas
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 ...
in 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 the third-largest motorway service area operator in the country, behind
Moto and
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 ...
and followed by
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 ...
.
History
Roadchef was founded in July 1973 as a joint venture between Lindley Catering Investments and Galleon World Travel, with the first Roadchef opening at
Killington Lake Services
Killington Lake Services is a motorway service station on the M6 motorway between Junctions 37 and 36 near Killington Lake in Cumbria, England. It was opened in 1972. Has rats outside in the front courtyard.
It is owned by Roadchef. It compr ...
on the M6.
By 1998, Roadchef had built a portfolio of 21 sites. A large expansion occurred in 1998 when Roadchef agreed to purchase Blue Boar Group and Take A Break for a total of £80 million, gaining the company an extra 4 services plus 1 under-construction site.
In September 2014, it was announced that owners
Delek Group
Delek Group is an Israeli conglomerate and one of Israel's largest companies, Delek Group is involved in the energy and infrastructure, with investments in upstream and downstream energy, water desalination and power plants. Delek Group' subsid ...
were selling Roadchef to
Antin Infrastructure Partners
Antin Infrastructure Partners is a private equity firm focused on infrastructure investment, with offices in Paris, London and Luxembourg.
History
Antin was founded in Paris in 2007. Initially sponsored by BNP Paribas, the firm bought out the bank ...
for £153 million.
Employee Benefit Scheme legal action
In 1986, Patrick Gee, the managing director of the company, set up an employee benefit scheme to give ordinary workers shares in the company. After Gee's early death, Timothy Ingram Hill took over as Roadchef's managing director, having helped lead a management buyout of the company in 1983. With his status as one of the original trustees of the employee benefit scheme, he set up a second scheme where he was the sole beneficiary, and secretly transferred the bulk of the employees' shares to it. This left employees with a much reduced scheme.
Tim Warwick, who worked as Roadchef's company secretary at the time of the transfer, blew the whistle on the Ingram Hill's transfer of the shares in 1998. A prolonged legal battle ensued, with the courts eventually declaring the transaction void in 2015 and ordered Mr Ingram Hill to repay the profit he made from the shares he appropriated.
Issues arose afterwards, when the trustees of the scheme discovered that an extra £10 million had been paid in tax for the shares by Ingram Hill and was thus due to be given to them. This money was recovered by the trustees, but the HMRC insisted that most of the tax should be paid by the trustees, due to Ingram Hill possessing the shares instead of the employees when the government passed legislation to make employee share schemes tax-free.
The trustees argued that the shares should not be taxed, as the scheme should be in the tax-free category if Ingram Hill had not appropriated the shares. The trustees further argued that the scheme could be retrospectively added to the list of tax-free schemes.
By July 2019, the ongoing dispute with HMRC was the only remaining obstacle in distributing the money to the affected employees, with the current Roadchef management expressing support for the trustees. As of September 2020, the money has still not been distributed back to the staff.
Facilities
Roadchef motorway service areas have varying facilities. All sites provide two hours free parking, toilets and food 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Common brands include:
Catering
Restaurants at Roadchef sites include:
*
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
*
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. ...
*
LEON
Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to:
Places
Europe
* León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León
* Province of León, Spain
* Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...
*
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, ...
* Chozen Noodle
* Fresh Food Cafe
* The Garden Square Deli
* The Breakfast Kitchen
Shop
Roadchef shop brands include:
*
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 ...
- the main shop at all sites
*
SPAR
SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...
*
Cotton Traders
Cotton Traders is an English clothing company, specialising in rugby apparel and leisurewear, based in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, England. It was founded in 1987 by former England national rugby union team captains Fran Cotton and Steve Smi ...
Locations
Roadchef operate the following
motorway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...
services:
*
Annandale Water
Annandale Water is a loch in Annandale, Dumfries and Galloway, in the south west of Scotland. It is part of Annandale Water service station at Junction 16 of the A74(M), close to Johnstonebridge, Dinwoodie and Newton Wamphray, and halfway b ...
(A74(M))
* Bothwell (M74 southbound)
* Catterick (A1(M)) - approved in July 2022
*
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
(M56)
*
Clacket Lane (M25)
*
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
* Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
(A1(M))
*
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
(M74 northbound)
*
Killington Lake (M6 southbound)
*
Magor Magor may refer to the following:
;Places
* Magor, Monmouthshire, a village in Wales, United Kingdom
* Magor with Undy, a community in Wales, United Kingdom
* Magor Farm, a Romano-British villa near Illogan in Cornwall
* Breton name for Magoar
* C ...
(M4)
*
Maidstone
Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...
(M20)
*
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
(M1)
*
Norton Canes
Norton Canes is an industrial village, civil parish and ward of Cannock Chase District, in Staffordshire, England.
It is situated out of the centre of Cannock. At the 2001 census it had a population of 6,394, and an area of of which 86% is gre ...
(M6 Toll)
* Pont Abraham (M4)
*
Rownhams
Rownhams is a village in Hampshire, England, situated just outside the boundaries of the City of Southampton, to the north-west. It is in the civil parish of Nursling and Rownhams. Rownhams services is a nearby service station on the M27 motorw ...
(M27)
*
Sandbach
Sandbach (pronounced ) is the name of a historic market town and a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. The civil parish contains four settlements: Sandbach itself as the largest, Elworth, Ettiley Heath a ...
(M6)
*
Sedgemoor
Sedgemoor is a low-lying area of land in Somerset, England. It lies close to sea level south of the Polden Hills, historically largely marsh (or "moor" in its older sense). The eastern part is known as King's Sedgemoor, and the western part Wes ...
(M5 southbound)
*
Stafford
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...
(M6 southbound)
*
Strensham (M5)
*
Taunton Deane
Taunton Deane was a local government district with borough status in Somerset, England. Its council was based in Taunton.
The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of the Municipal Borough of Ta ...
(M5)
*
Tibshelf
Tibshelf is a village and civil parish in the Bolsover District in Derbyshire, England. Located between the towns of Clay Cross, Shirebrook, Mansfield and Chesterfield. It had a population at the 2001 UK census of 3,548, increasing to 3,787 at th ...
(M1)
*
Watford Gap (M1)
And one
A-road site at:
* Sutton Scotney (A34)
References
External links
RoadchefOfficial Website
Motorway Services Online - Roadchef
{{UK Motorway Service Stations
Catering and food service companies of the United Kingdom
British companies established in 1973
Retail companies established in 1973
Food and drink companies established in 1973
Hospitality companies established in 1973
Companies based in Staffordshire