roadchef

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Roadchef adds First Motorway Services to its growing portfolio

In August 2011 Roadchef Chief Executive Simon Turl was delighted to announce the purchase of 2 further sites from First Motorway Services, namely the Motorway Service Area at Magor, just off junction 23A on the M4 in South Wales, as well as the trunk road services at Symonds Yat, just off the A40 in Herefordshire.

The purchase of Magor now brings Roadchef’s estate of Motorway Service Areas to 20 and Mr Turl went on to add that the company plans a £1m development for the site over the next 3 months with the addition of a larger Costa in March, a McDonald’s restaurant in February and a brand new WHSmith retail store in January.

This recent acquisition and significant re-development of Magor services, together with the major investment plans detailed below announced in October 2010 show just how progressive and ambitious Roadchef has become and further consolidates the company’s position as a major player in Britain’s motorway service network.

Roadchef announces multi-million pound investment drive

In October 2010, Roadchef confirmed the creation of over 400 jobs as part of a multi-million pound investment programme to regenerate the company’s entire estate up until 2015. The first two years will see some £12 million spent on redeveloping the catering facilities at ten key sites, with further improvements at Roadchef’s remaining service areas scheduled to take place over the following three years.

Roadchef is one of the Britain’s largest Motorway Service Area operators, turning over around £200 million per year and employing over 2000 members of staff at its now 20 sites. The redevelopment is set to increase jobs across the company by 20% and will significantly increase the number of customer visits from its current 60 million per annum, again over the next five years.

As part of the investment programme and following the successful trial of McDonald’s on the M5 at Strensham services, the famous golden arches will replace the Wimpy brand, in the quick serve restaurant brand’s first ever corporate franchise agreement.

In a 20 year agreement, Roadchef will sell McDonald’s food and drink at high street prices, bringing a unique, market leading and value-led branded offering to the motorway, aiming to provide customers with the same quality, value and choice they currently find on the high street.

However, the biggest change to the company’s catering portfolio will see the eradication of the much-maligned Motorway Service Area free flow restaurant. Taking learning’s from the airport industry and other retail environments, all Restbite outlets, which offer a traditional ‘servery on a tray rail’ approach to dining, will be converted to Roadchef’s own in house brand Hot Food Co., following successful trails at Strensham, Watford Gap and Northampton services.

Hot Food Co. combines a contemporary branded food servery with the latest back of house cooking equipment, which improves food quality, speed of service and continues to deliver value to customers through promotions such as our two meals for £11* deal, but in a more modern setting.

And finally, as part of the refurbishment programme, all Costa outlets across the entire estate will be either relocated to more spacious and prominent areas, or upgraded to deliver the best quality coffee and customer experience on the motorway.

By regenerating and strengthening our branded and in-house catering portfolios , the company strongly believes that it can now redefine the face of motorway catering and with motorway traffic currently increasing at about 3% each year and a period of prolonged ‘staycation’ with the UK population preferring to spend more time at home, rather than travelling to nearby mainland Europe, Roadchef is well placed to build on its current success and improvement with regard to financial performance and stability.

Roadchef in the news

And the news of Roadchef’s development plans travelled fast with articles appearing in the main section of The Times and the business section of The Daily Telegraph on 22nd October 2010.

Both publications very much led with the news that Roadchef has signed a 20-year agreement with McDonald’s, but there was also recognition that money will be spent on all Costa units over the five year development period, as well as the fact that the company is looking to replace all of its Restbite free flow restaurants with contemporary Hot Food Co. outlets, offering better quality, speed and value!

Roadchef features on Channel 5 documentary

And whilst all the excitement of a major five year development programme was being announced to the media and press, the site at Strensham on the M5, which over the last two years has acted as the pilot site for Roadchef’s new catering concepts, was featured in a special Channel 5 programme ‘Motorway Madness’

The fly on the wall documentary centred on both customers and staff at one of Britain’s busiest Motorway Service Areas over the August Bank Holiday period in 2010.

Very much focusing on the customer experience and behind the scenes footage of both catering and retail operations, including Costa, Hot Food Co. and WHSmith, Strensham was subjected to the utmost scrutiny throughout an hour long programme and appeared to pass with flying colours.

During the documentary, producers hailed Strensham as a ‘A modern day airport of the road’ and ‘A slick multi-million pound operation’, which turned over £350k in catering and retail revenue, catered for around 140k customers and sold 65k hot drinks and 200k litres of fuel, over the busiest bank holiday week of the year.

*Excludes Clacket Lane services Eastbound and Watford Gap services Northbound.