Could you make money from a Little Chef? Iconic roadside cafe chain to battle back with fry-ups and franchising

By Sarah Bridge for The Mail on Sunday

Published: 16:36 EST, 8 September 2012 | Updated: 05:04 EST, 10 September 2012

Little Chef is to launch a franchise programme in an attempt to revitalise the brand and trigger expansion just months after being rescued from administration.

Chief executive Graham Sims, who is spearheading the turnround plan, said he is about to sign up the first franchise operator, probably in East Anglia, for an outlet which should be open in the autumn.

Sims said: ‘There is great opportunity in the market so we’re developing our franchise model as we feel there are a number of new franchisees supported by Government or European funds who are willing to put money into redevelopments themselves. In return we’ll give them all the support they need.’

Taste for success: Graham Sims with the popular Olympic breakfast

Other franchise deals will follow shortly and the plan is to have a ‘master-franchisor’ system in regions such as Scotland, where someone manages multiple sites. Little Chef is undertaking a refit of all of its 90 sites and has completed 15 so far.

‘We wanted to go back to basics and be known for great food and great value,’ said Sims. ‘Our customers want a traditional diner experience and classic British food, so we have Yorkshire puddings. We sell 1,000 servings of ham, eggs and chips every day. And we sell a million Olympic breakfast fry-ups each year.’

Sims said Little Chef was the ‘darling of the roads’ in the mid-1980s, but ‘then people got a bit greedy’.

He said: ‘It had about 400 sites and it started to lose focus, do strange things and went into administration.

‘It was bought by private equity and the focus was about asset stripping rather than the customers.’

He described a partnership with chef Heston Blumenthal as being ‘a great catalyst for change’, but he added: ‘Customers don’t want fine dining in a Little Chef. It raised the profile and he helped us enormously, but his menu was less than five per cent of our sales.’

Now Little Chef has free wi-fi, a new takeaway service with Little Chef Express and the chain serves seven million customers a year. Food is mainly British.

Sims said: ‘We would love to buy everything British, but the supermarkets are very cavalier in their procurement. They are just hoovering up the British chickens and we just can’t buy British free-range chickens at all, so we buy Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance instead. They may be Brazilian chickens, but they are happy Brazilian chickens.’

From November, Little Chef will display calorie counts in its restaurants. Sims said: ‘Our Olympic breakfast is 1,050 calories, but of course we do have lighter options.’

He is considering giving a free meal if diners have a bad experience. Little Chef is soon to launch tie-ups with brands including Cadbury’s and Heinz. The chain is also planning to host children’s parties.