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The Saltash branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A38 near Saltash, Cornwall.

Facilities: Burger King, Subway, Travelodge, BP, Shop, Costa Express, Air1 AdBlue, Car Wash

History[]

Saltash Services opened in 1989 on the Saltash roundabout serving the A38 and A388 roads and was built by Motorway Services giant Granada as part of their plans to conquer the A-roads with scaled-down motorway-style sites. Others included Blyth (A1), Musselburgh (A1), Markfield (A50), Colsterworth (A1), Warminster (A36) and their older site at Monmouth (A40). These each had a Granada Country Kitchen restaurant, shop, small arcade area, lodge and fuel forecourt. In the early 90s, Granada decided to replace the restaurant at all A-road sites, with the exception of Blyth, with AJ's Family Restaurants who it had done a deal with. This gave them a direct rival to Forte's Little Chef brand for the first time. They then added Burger King to all sites. 

However, in 1995 Granada got their hands on rival chain Forte and this gave Granada control of Forte's well established roadside brands. By 1996 the AJ's at Saltash became a Little Chef and its lodge a Travelodge. Subsequent owner changes around 2000 then saw Granada merge with Compass and demerge again leaving Compass with the roadside portfolio. In 2002 Compass then passed Little Chef and Travelodge onto Permira of Canada. However, Granada, now called Moto, kept Little Chef, BK and Travelodge at Saltash as part of a franchise agreement.

In 2006, following a successful trial, a Coffee Tempo! outlet was built alongside the Little Chef and BK.

Sad news struck in 2012 when RCapital announced that 67 of the underperforming Little Chef sites would close without warning and Saltash was one of the branches on the list. The Little Chef closed in 2012, initially leaving just the Burger King trading. The Coffee Tempo! outlet also ceased trading at Saltash and has since remained empty. In August 2014, the empty Little Chef outlet opened as a Subway outlet.  

Despite the closure of the Little Chef, the Subway and Burger King outlets were still operated by Little Chef. 

In 2018, EG Group gained ownership of the restaurants, and opened a Greggs and Sainsbury's on the Go in 2019, the Greggs being the first in Cornwall. This caused fury from residents, despite the store not being able to sell pasties. The Greggs eventually closed and remained bordered up. In Summer 2020, the Sainsbury's on the Go store closed permanently, leaving the original restaurants.

Despite EG Group owning the restaurants, Moto still operate the forecourt and hotel. 

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