The Cross Hands branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A48 near Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire.
Address and Onsite Information[]
ADDRESS: A48, Cross Hands, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, SA16 6NN
ONSITE FACILITIES: Esso, Shop 'N Drive (forecourt), Starbucks, Travelodge (Book Room)
History[]
Located at a small service station next to a busy roundabout, the Little Chef at Cross Hands first opened its doors in 1988/89 by then owners, Forte, opening up alongside a filling station and Travelodge hotel. Roundabout sites in particular were always great trading locations for Little Chef restaurants as not only were the restaurants highly visible from roundabouts but they were also accessible to all traffic as well, meaning that these particular restaurants had the ability to serve more than one route. The roundabout at Cross Hands was and has always been a busy one. It serves two major routes: the A48, a major route often used by holidaymakers travelling to and from Western Wales, and the A476, a major route connecting Llanelli with Llandeilo, therefore this gave the Little Chef at Cross Hands the ability to attract a large volume of traffic to stop off and dine at the restaurant, making it a profitable site.
When Little Chef was handed over to Granada in the mid 1990s, they set about opening a number of Burger King outlets alongside a number of busy Little Chef restaurants and Cross Hands was a branch to receive a Burger King restaurant, giving the site two dining options. However, the Burger King later closed by the mid 2000s and was left as an empty space. This was the case with a lot of Burger Kings which traded alongside Little Chefs.
The Little Chef at Cross Hands was a popular site and despite competition from McDonald's to the north of the roundabout, it managed to escape the long list of closures between 2001 and 2007. However, trouble struck in 2012 when then owners, RCapital, decided to slim down the Little Chef portfolio in order to focus on the more profitable restaurants and as a result, 67 Little Chefs up and down the country had closed, including Cross Hands. The restaurant closed on the 11th January 2012 and although it was left vacant for a while, it was later replaced with a Starbucks. The Total filling station has since become an Esso.
With the closure of Cross Hands, this left the Little Chef at St Clears, located up the road on the A40, as the only Little Chef left to trade in South West Wales. However, this later closed in 2017 as part of the demise of the chain.