Roadchef

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Company which operates motorway service areas

title: "Roadchef" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["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"] description: "Company which operates motorway service areas" topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadchef" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Company which operates motorway service areas ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

FieldValue
nameRoadchef Motorways Limited
logoRoadchef_Motorway_Services_Logo_2022.jpg
typePrivate
industryHospitality
foundation
locationNorton Canes services, Staffordshire, UK
area_servedUnited Kingdom (except Northern Ireland)
key_peopleRobert Prynn (Chairman)
Tim Gittins (CEO)
<!--revenue
profit£6.3million
assets£401million
num_employees3,000+
parentMacquarie Group
homepage
::

| name = Roadchef Motorways Limited | logo = Roadchef_Motorway_Services_Logo_2022.jpg | type = Private | industry = Hospitality | predecessor = | foundation = | location = Norton Canes services, Staffordshire, UK | area_served = United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) | key_people = Robert Prynn (Chairman) Tim Gittins (CEO) | revenue = | profit = £6.3million | assets = £401million | num_employees = 3,000+ | parent = Macquarie Group | subsid = | footnotes = | homepage =

Roadchef Motorways Limited is a company which operates 21 motorway service areas in the United Kingdom.

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 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 £80million, gaining the company an extra four services plus one under-construction site.

In September 2014, it was announced that owners Delek Group were selling Roadchef to Antin Infrastructure Partners for £153million.

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 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 £10million 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. , the money had 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.

Restaurants at Roadchef sites include:

Locations

|float=right |width=420 |places= |caption=Roadchef motorway service areas Roadchef operate the following motorway services:

And one A-road site at:

  • Sutton Scotney (A34)

References

References

  1. Annual accounts for 31.Dec.2018 at Companies House https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/01123082/filing-history
  2. "Revenue passes £190m at motorway service station firm".
  3. (1973-07-17). "ROADCHEF MOTORWAYS LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK".
  4. Lawrence, David. (1999). "Always a Welcome: The Glove Compartment History of the Motorway Service Area". Between Books.
  5. (14 September 2014). "Delek Group to sell Britain's Roadchef for $250 million". [[Thomson Reuters]].
  6. "Roadchef Decision – Pett Franklin".
  7. (6 March 2015). "Roadchef whistleblower's 17-year share battle". BBC News.
  8. (31 January 2015). "Roadchef workers win legal fight for shares after 20 years".
  9. (5 September 2020). "Roadchef shares scandal widow demands action by UK government". BBC News.
  10. "Top executive reward levelling off".
  11. "hgv".
  12. (20 August 2022). "McDonalds may open at A1(M) eaterie hotspot". The Yorkshire Post.
  13. (13 February 2025). "Roadchef Transforms Folkestone Services With New McDonald's, Costa And WH Smithn". Roadchef.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

catering-and-food-service-companies-of-the-united-kingdombritish-companies-established-in-1973retail-companies-established-in-1973food-and-drink-companies-established-in-1973hospitality-companies-established-in-1973companies-based-in-staffordshire