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 Applegreen.

History

Opened in 1959, the service area at

Newport Pagnell Newport Pagnell is a town and civil parish in the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The Office for National Statistics records Newport Pagnell as part of the Milton Keynes urban area. It is separated from the rest of the urban ...

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 ...

near

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

by Motorway Services Ltd was the company's first service area under the Forte name and was the second service area to be constructed on the fledgling UK motorway network, however it was still the first to open. 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 when Hanson Trust renamed 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.

Split from Trusthouse Forte

In January 1996, the Forte Group was the subject of a £3.9 billion

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to t ...

by the British media group

Granada Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...

. Due to Granada's existing major presence in the motorway services market, a subsequent investigation by the

Monopolies and Mergers Commission The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under ...

ordered Granada to sell 27 of the Welcome Break sites. The company was eventually bought by

Investcorp Investcorp is a global manager of alternative investment products, for private and institutional clients. Founded in Bahrain in 1982, the firm has offices in United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, India, China, ...

in 1997 for £476M. Investcorp then sold Welcome Break to Appia Investments in March 2008 for £500M.

Applegreen ownership

In August 2018 Applegreen agreed to purchase the majority of Welcome Break for €361.8M.

Facilities

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 café or restaurant, a retail outlet, a hotel and a petrol station. All sites have

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 ...

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational 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 restaurant ch ...

, an eat-in restaurant, a coffee shop (

Starbucks Coffee Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 cou ...

), and a petrol station ( Shell or BP).

Hotels

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 Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

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 unti ...

, and

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Steven ...

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 Ramada is a large American multinational hotel chain owned by Wyndham Hotels and Resorts. As of December 31, 2018, it operates 811 hotels with 114,614 rooms across 63 countries under the Ramada brand. Name The ''Ramada'' name derives from t ...

hotels. In December 2014, Welcome Break purchased Days Hotel Wakefield, and after a full refurbishment it was reopened as Ramada Wakefield in January 2015.

Catering

When Welcome Break chain was sold by Granada, branches of Little Chef at those sites were replaced a similar table service restaurant, Red Hen. High prices earned the chain the nickname "Little Thief". Eat In became 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: *

Subway Subway, Subways, The Subway, or The Subways may refer to: Transportation * Subway, a term for underground rapid transit rail systems * Subway (underpass), a type of walkway that passes underneath an obstacle * Subway (George Bush Intercontin ...

was opened at 15 Welcome Break sites from January 2015 to May 2015. * Harry Ramsden's, a UK-based fish and chip restaurant (also offering a range of breakfast to eat in or take away), is included at the majority of sites. *

Waitrose Waitrose & Partners (formally Waitrose Limited) is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still se ...

has franchise stores at most Welcome Breaks. * In May 2006, a branch of the international

coffeehouse A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...

chain

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 cou ...

was opened on a trial basis at Corley services on the

M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at ...

. 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. In May 2005, Welcome Break announced a deal with KFC designed to bypass tough UK motorway signage legislation. UK law used to prevents motorway service area operators from displaying additional brand names other than their own company name on roadside signage. To circumvent this restriction, a new subsidiary company "Welcome Break KFC" was registered. However now it is legal to have up to 6 logos on motorway service station signs. *

restaurants operate at all Welcome Break service stations except

Burtonwood Burtonwood is a village in the civil parish of Burtonwood and Westbrook, in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, the name Burtonwood is known worldwide as the location of the ...

and

Derby South Derby South () is a constituency formed of part of the city of Derby represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1983 by veteran MP Margaret Beckett of the Labour Party. She has served under the Labour governments of Har ...

. * Tossed is a healthy food based restaurant chain at selected Welcome Break services. These are Oxford, South Mimms, Birchanger Green, Warwick and Fleet. * In 1995, it was announced that they were going to add a

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

to every one of the services, but the process was stopped after just two because

Forte 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 ...

were acquired by Granada (now Moto), a deal which included Welcome Break and lost out to

being added instead. There are no longer any

branches at Welcome Break sites with the last two at

Fleet services Fleet Services is a motorway service station on the M3 near Fleet. It is owned by Welcome Break. History Opened in 1973, it was originally built in a Scandinavian style and in 1992 won Loo of the Year Award. Before 2001, when Winchester se ...

and

Woodall services Woodall services is a motorway service station on the M1 motorway in Rotherham close to Sheffield in England. It lies between junctions 30 and 31. It was opened in 1968 by Trust House Forte but was renamed Welcome Break after the takeover of the ...

closing in March 2020. This was due to a licensing agreement with Burger King that prevents a McDonald's on any site with a Burger King. * Chopstix, first introduced in August 2016 at Birchanger Green and now has a few branches at other services.

WHSmith

Recently, Welcome Break service areas have followed the industry-wide trend towards partnership with High Street brands.

W H Smith 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 ...

stores have been introduced at the majority of Welcome Break sites as a replacement for the traditional unbranded retail outlets.WH Smith to open 33 travel stores at Welcome Break motorway service areas
''

Forbes.com ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'', 05/02/07. 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.

Fone Bitz

Fone Bitz sell electronics across the motorway network and operate at most Welcome Break sites. Fone Bitz sell a range of Mobile Phone,

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, ...

iPod The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes wa ...

, Laptop, electronic and car accessories in general.

Welcome Break Gaming

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.

Gridserve (previously Ecotricity)

In July 2011 it was announced that the green energy provider Ecotricity will be providing fast and normal electric vehicle

charging station A charging station, also known as a charge point or electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), is a piece of equipment that supplies electrical power for charging plug-in electric vehicles (including electric cars, electric trucks, electric b ...

s at Welcome Break service stations as part of its 'Electric highway' network, linking London in the south with Exeter in the west and Edinburgh in the north. In July 2021, it was announced that

Gridserve GRIDSERVE Sustainable Energy Limited is a British company founded in 2017 to develop, own and operate critical infrastructure for sustainable energy production. Gridserve opened the UK's first all-electric car charging forecourt in 2020, and pla ...

had purchased Ecotricity's "Electric Highway" charging network. Gridserve agreed to maintain the network's relationship with Welcome Break, and will start updating charge points to include

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsung ...

and faster chargers However, whilst other MSAs were rapidly upgraded, by Christmas of 2021 Gridserve had been unable to upgrade any of the Welcome Break sites. Speculation online that Welcome Break were blocking them from doing so was given credence by the installation at South Mimms of EV chargers bearing the Welcome Break brand.

Logo

Welcome Break introduced a new company logo in September 2006. The

swan Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Som ...

, 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. In 2020 the logo was remade with a new font and is no longer in all capital letter
David Fisher — Somerset Artist
.

Locations

* Abington – M74 J13 * Birchanger – M11 J8 *

– M62 J8 *

Cardiff Gate Cardiff Gate is a business park development, located on the junction 30 of the M4 motorway and the A4232 north east of Cardiff, South Wales. Development In light of the development of farmland into housing at Pontprennau in the east of Cardiff i ...

– M4 J30 * Charnock Richard – M6 between J27 and J28 * Corley – M6 between J3 and J4 *

– A50 between J1 and J2 * Fleet – M3 between J4a and J5 * Gordano – M5 J19 *

Gretna Green Gretna Green is a parish in the southern council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on the Scottish side of the border between Scotland and England, defined by the small river Sark, which flows into the nearby Solway Firth. It was histo ...

–

A74(M) The A74(M) and M74 form a major motorway in Scotland, connecting it to England. The routes connect the M8 motorway in central Glasgow to the Scottish-English border at Gretna. In conjunction with their southward continuation, the M6 motorw ...

between J21 and J22 *

Hartshead Moor Hartshead Moor Top is a hamlet in the county of West Yorkshire, England, halfway between Brighouse and Cleckheaton on the A643. It is close to the Hartshead Moor services on the M62 motorway. In 1974 the service station was near the scene of a ...

– M62 between J25 and J26 * Hopwood Park – M42 J2 * Keele – M6 between J15 and J16 *

Leicester Forest East Leicester Forest East (LFE) is a large suburban village in Leicestershire, England, west of Leicester, straddling the M1 motorway. It is part of the Blaby district. Leicester Forest East is a popular location among commuters and young familie ...

– M1 between J21 and J21a *

London Gateway DP World London Gateway is a port within the wider Port of London, United Kingdom. Opened in November 2013, the site is a fully integrated logistics facility, comprising a semi-automated deep-sea container terminal on the same site as the UK ...

– M1 between J2 and J4 * Membury – M4 between J14 and J15 * Michaelwood – M5 between J13 and J14 *

– M1 – between J14 and J15 *

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

– M40 J8a * Peartree – A34 junction with A44 * Sarn Park – M4 J36 * Sedgemoor (Northbound) – M5 between J21 and J22 *

South Mimms South Mimms is a village and civil parish in the Hertsmere district of Hertfordshire in the East of England. It is a small settlement located near to the junction of the M25 motorway with the A1(M) motorway and is perhaps more widely known because ...

– M25 J23,

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 cap ...

J1 *

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in t ...

– M54 J4 *

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

– M40 between J12 and J13 * Woodall – M1 between J30 and J31

References

External links

Welcome Break

Motorway Services Online – Welcome Break
{{UK Motorway Service Stations Catering and food service companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1959 Retail companies established in 1959 Food and drink companies established in 1959 Hospitality companies established in 1959 1986 mergers and acquisitions 1997 mergers and acquisitions 2008 mergers and acquisitions 2018 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in Milton Keynes 1959 establishments in England