History
Charles Forte set up his first "milk bar" on Regent Street in London in 1935 as Strand Milk Bar Ltd when he was 26. Soon he began expanding into catering and hotel businesses. After the Second World War, his company became Forte Holdings Ltd, and bought The Café Royal in 1954. He opened the first full motorway service station for cars at Newport Pagnell in 1959. Trust Houses Group Ltd and Forte Holdings merged in 1970 to become Trust Houses Forte or THF. The name was simplified to Trusthouse Forte in 1979.
Through mergers and expansion, the Forte Group expanded into a multi-billion pound business. It included the Little Chef and Happy Eater roadside restaurants, Crest, Forte Grand, Travelodge and Posthouse hotels, Harvester restaurants, contract catering firm Gardner Merchant, the wine merchant Grierson-Blumenthal, sporting goods retailer Lillywhites (which adjoined the group's Criterion restaurant) and a majority (although non-controlling) stake in the Savoy Hotel. Happy Eater and the five Welcome Break service areas were bought from Hanson Trust on 1 August 1986. The group for a time started to resemble a conglomerate with interests spanning the Sidgwick & Jackson publishing house, the Terry's chocolate company, Puritan Maid and a stake in Thomas Cook travel agents.
Forte was the CEO from 1971 and Chairman from 1982 (when his son Sir Rocco Forte took over as CEO).
In the early 1990s, the company was rebranded as Forte and the crown logo was adoped at the same time. This rebranding also heralded the introduction of sub brand groups for almost all the hotels (Posthouse, Crest, Heritage, Grand etc.). Lord Forte passed full control to Rocco in 1993, but soon the Forte Group was faced with a hostile takeover bid from Granada. Ultimately, Granada succeeded with a £3.9 billion tender offer in January 1996, which left the family with around £350 million in cash.
In 2001, following the de-merger of Compass plc from Granada's media interests, the use of the Forte trademark was returned to Sir Rocco Forte in a gesture intended to dispel the bitter legacy of the takeover. Rocco now owns the Rocco Forte Hotels group.
Read more about this topic: Forte Group
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