How the Family Behind Little Chef Lost 800 Hotels in Nine Weeks: Forte
The Faded Kingdom
2,444 views
On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on Britain. That night a 31-year-old
man who ran a handful of milk bars in London became an enemy alien by
operation of law. He was taken to the Isle of Man and held for three
months.
Fifty-five years later the company Charles Forte built owned around 800
hotels, 1,000 restaurants and 68% of the Savoy group. It owned the
Grosvenor House on Park Lane and the George V in Paris. It owned 400
Little Chefs and 21 motorway service areas. It was the second largest
hotel company in Europe.
On 23 January 1996 a television company took it with 66.68% of the
shares — and the shareholder whose decision tipped it held a large stake
in both sides at once.
This is the story of a man who worked out that the money is not in the
places people want to go, but in the places they have to stop: milk
bars, airport canteens, roadside cafés, motorway services. It covers the
milk bar boom the state was promoting, the internment, the Café Royal,
the bridge restaurants over the M1, the boardroom war of 1971, Happy
Eater, the Olympic Breakfast, and the nine weeks in the winter of 1995
that ended it.
Sources include Hansard, Companies House, contemporary press from 1937
and 1996, the International Directory of Company Histories, and
Motorway Services Online.
Chapters
00:00 The tenth of June, 1940
02:00 Monforte to Upper Regent Street
07:00 The contracts
10:30 The road
16:00 The fight
21:30 The machine
26:00 Nine weeks
30:00 The vote
32:00 The pieces
#Forte #LittleChef #HappyEater #MotorwayServices #CharlesForte
#BritishHistory #LostBritain #GrosvenorHouse #TrusthouseForte #Granada
#1970sBritain #1980sBritain #TheFadedKingdom
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How the Family Behind Little Chef Lost 800 Hotels in Nine Weeks: Forte
The Faded Kingdom
2,444 views
On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on Britain. That night a 31-year-old
man who ran a handful of milk bars in London became an enemy alien by
operation of law. He was taken to the Isle of Man and held for three
months.
Fifty-five years later the company Charles Forte built owned around 800
hotels, 1,000 restaurants and 68% of the Savoy group. It owned the
Grosvenor House on Park Lane and the George V in Paris. It owned 400
Little Chefs and 21 motorway service areas. It was the second largest
hotel company in Europe.
On 23 January 1996 a television company took it with 66.68% of the
shares — and the shareholder whose decision tipped it held a large stake
in both sides at once.
This is the story of a man who worked out that the money is not in the
places people want to go, but in the places they have to stop: milk
bars, airport canteens, roadside cafés, motorway services. It covers the
milk bar boom the state was promoting, the internment, the Café Royal,
the bridge restaurants over the M1, the boardroom war of 1971, Happy
Eater, the Olympic Breakfast, and the nine weeks in the winter of 1995
that ended it.
Sources include Hansard, Companies House, contemporary press from 1937
and 1996, the International Directory of Company Histories, and
Motorway Services Online.
Chapters
00:00 The tenth of June, 1940
02:00 Monforte to Upper Regent Street
07:00 The contracts
10:30 The road
16:00 The fight
21:30 The machine
26:00 Nine weeks
30:00 The vote
32:00 The pieces
#Forte #LittleChef #HappyEater #MotorwayServices #CharlesForte
#BritishHistory #LostBritain #GrosvenorHouse #TrusthouseForte #Granada
#1970sBritain #1980sBritain #TheFadedKingdom