Moto Hospitality

Moto Hospitality is a British service station operator which operates 58 motorway service stations across the United Kingdom. It is currently the UK's largest service area operator. Moto is owned by USS, who purchased the company from Macquarie. Macquarie Bank managed Moto between when Compass Group sold off SSP in April 2006 for £1,822 million and late 2015. As they have new owners and to keep up with their rivals, Moto is currently refurbishing sites with new restaurants.[1]

Moto Hospitality
Private
IndustryHospitality
PredecessorGranada
Founded7 February 2001 (7 February 2001) (Toddington)
HeadquartersToddington, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
Area served
United Kingdom except Northern Ireland
Key people
Ken McMeikan (CEO)
Robert Prynn (CFO)
Tim Gittins (Chief Operating Officer)
Mike Tye (Chairman)
Revenue£3.059 million (2017)
OwnerPrivate investors
Number of employees
6,000+
Websitewww.moto-way.com

History

Granada, who owned the chain of Granada motorway service stations, merged with Compass in July 2000, to form Granada Compass plc. The plan was to combine the hospitality interests of the two businesses and hive off the media division, which was done by demerging the new group into Compass plc and Granada Media in 2001. Granada had previously acquired Forte plc in a £3.3bn hostile takeover on 24 January 1996. It sold its French Cote France service stations to Italy's Autogrill in December 1997. The food and hospitality division of Granada was retained by Compass, which became its Select Service Partner (SSP) UK division, but ownership of the Granada brand and trademark passed to the new media company. The Granada name was retained on the service stations until 23 May 2001, when the 47 sites were rebranded as Moto. In 2006, Moto separated from Compass Group and SSP following successful acquisition by a consortium of investors and underwent a period of intensive expansion through investment in new brands and offers.

Other operations

Moto operates various franchise outlets at Extra MSA locations. These include M&S Simply Food, Costa Coffee, West Cornwall Pasty Company, Krispy Kreme and Greggs.

Facilities

WHSmith

WHSmith stores are located at all Moto services apart from Leeming Bar, Tiverton and Todhills.

Hotels

Most Moto locations have hotels:

  • Travelodge operate at 56 Moto sites.
  • Days Inn are at two Moto sites: Wetherby and Winchester. Winchester Days Inn was opened by Moto but is operated by Welcome Break.

Catering
  • Burger King is at all Moto Service Stations except Todhills.
  • Costa Coffee operate at all Moto service areas.
  • EDC (Eat and Drink Co.), Moto's self branded restaurant, was at most Moto locations. It is only available at Thurrock as all other outlets closed.
  • Greggs is at 27 Moto service stations. Moto also operates Greggs at four Extra motorway services as well.
  • West Cornwall Pasty Co now operates where all Upper Crusts used to be, except for Cherwell Valley, Wetherby and Reading Eastbound.
  • M&S Foodhalls are at most Moto locations.
  • Krispy Kreme operate stalls at most Moto locations.
  • Arlo's is an own-brand successor to EDC originally trialled at Chieveley in late 2015. All branches were closed by 2020 except Chieveley.

Barbershop

The barbershops at Toddington and Leigh Delamere have closed, leaving only one site at Lymm.

Betting arcades

In 1995, Granada thought that betting arcades would be useful at motorway services:

  • Ladbrokes was the first brand used.
  • Lucky Coin are Moto's own brand betting arcades. They appear at most sites.
  • Full Hou$e are another Moto brand betting arcade. They are not at a lot of locations.
  • &Play are another own brand betting arcade introduced in some recently (2017) refurbished sites.

Fone Bitz

Fone Bitz operate at selected Moto sites.

Petrol stations

The petrol stations at Moto sites are variously Esso or BP.

Play areas

Selected Moto sites feature an indoor or outdoor play area within or near the main building. Outdoor play areas used to be more common but have been removed for various reasons. Indoor play areas are currently (2017) at two service areas (Leigh Delamere Westbound and Donington). These were added in 2016.

Awards

Moto won awards for the quality of their internal training programme "Achieve In Moto" (AIM) at the Training Journal Awards in 2017. Moto won Gold in the category "Best Private/Commercial Programme" and also two Silver awards in the categories "Best Talent Development Programme" and "Best Operational Programme".[2]

Moto have won awards for the standards of cleanliness in their public toilets, winning the 'Loo of the Year Award' in 2006 (for the fourth year running).[3]

The competition judges visited more than 1,000 public toilets all over Britain, scrutinising cleanliness, overall management, signage, accessibility, décor and the standard of fixtures and fittings.[4]

Innovations

In 2008, Moto opened Britain's first carbon-neutral service station on the A1(M) at Kirk Deighton near Wetherby,[5] lying across the border line between West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire; they also purchased Winchester Services from Roadchef for conversion to carbon neutral operation. The upgrade added recharging points for hybrid cars, a wind turbine, energy-saving measures within the station itself and several innovative solutions that were employed on a trial basis. These included a methane capturing system in the septic tank that allows gas to be recycled into the food production areas, and a commitment towards the reuse of energy currently wasted in the disposal systems of the station.

Locations

Planned
  • Basingstoke - M3 J6
  • Duxford - M11 J10
  • Rugby - M6 J1

See also

References
  1. "Travel catering giant SSP and Moto sold to EQT and Macquarie Bank for £1.822 billion – 09/04/06". TheMoodieReport.com. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
  2. "2017 Winners | TJ Awards". www.trainingjournalawards.com. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  3. "Loo of the Year Awards 2007: National Award Winners". Loo.co.uk. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
  4. "LOY 2007 results brochure" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 July 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
  5. "New Moto Station to hold open day in Wetherby - Wetherby Today". Wetherbynews.co.uk. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
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