Fri, 31 May 2013 | BUSINESS SALE
The owner of roadside restaurant business Little Chef has said that it has started to receive bids for the company.
Private equity firm RCapital bought the business out of administration back in 2007 and embarked upon what it termed a “long-term critical rebuild strategy”. This is now reportedly complete and the business was put on the market last month.
So far bids for the chain have come from rival convenience food outlets, including Costa, Starbucks, McDonald's and KFC. This has prompted fears that the Little Chef brand could disappear altogether if one of these companies buy the sites and rebrand them.
A statement from RCapital said: “It is not a surprise that the majority of the offers for Little Chef are from companies that may want to rebrand the estate. RCapital has a deep affection for the Little Chef brand and it is hoped that some Little Chefs will remain on Britain's A roads even if some sites are re-branded.”
The company opened its first site in Reading in 1958. By 2007 it had grown to a chain of over 230 restaurants but when the firm fell into administration, the new owners RCapital slimmed down the chain to its current size of 83 restaurants. They also cut the staff down from 4,000 to 1,100.
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