History
In 1973 a former managing director of the hotel group Trust House Forte, Michael Pickard, founded a family-orientated roadside restaurant, aimed at competing with the established pre-eminent chain in the industry, Little Chef. By 1980 Pickard had built up a chain of 21 restaurants when he sold Happy Eater to the Imperial Group conglomerate. Imperial expanded the chain to 75 restaurants, before selling the chain to Trust House Forte in 1986. THF was taken over in 1995 by Granada.
Following the takeover most Happy Eater restaurants were re-branded Little Chef, although some poor performing Happy Eaters were not re-branded due to the expense; these have since been closed. Granada said this was because people were eating at Little Chef rather than Happy Eater. The final Happy Eater was converted in 1997.
Stacia Briggs recalled:
Even without the logos, you could always tell your Happy Eaters from your Little Chefs by the presence of pollution-caked play equipment bolted to a piece of unforgiving tarmac outside the former. It was here that your kids could choke down the passing fumes of 10,000 lorries while you ate the very antithesis of a good meal.
Read more about this topic: Happy Eater
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