Guide to EG Group (Euro Garages)
EG Group (Euro Garages)

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Locations:1 MSA as an operator, many more restaurants
Introduced:2011 (on motorways)
Removed:2024 (on motorways)
Predecessors:Little Chef, various forecourts
Successors:Asda Express, EG On The Move
Phone number:01254 582111
See also:Applegreen, MFG
Official Website:
www.eg.group

Throughout the 2010s, the growth of Euro Garages was phenomenal, with a portfolio which grew to include thousands of petrol stations and restaurants, one UK motorway service area, and a wide range of partner brands across the world.

Their revised name EG Group became one of the UK's biggest service area operators, selling not just selling fuel but also acting as the UK's biggest operator of KFC, Greggs and Starbucks franchises. Sometimes these would be provided independent of each other, but often they would be combined to create large service areas.

Then, their dominance ended. EG Group's loan-funded purchase of Asda prompted a business shake-up which resulted in Asda becoming the foodservice mega-brand, with the international operations taking a different path. For drivers in the UK, most EG Group sites became Asda-operated and branded.

Co-founder Zuber Issa, often praised for his role in the company's rapid growth, announced that he would be taking over those remaining petrol stations under his new firm EG On the Move, which would also follow up unfulfilled EG Group site plans.

Company History

Euro Garages were founded in 2001 by the Issa family. This is often told as a 'rags to riches' story, and while that is true, it's worth noting that the family already had a successful business, Europlast, which made a significant loan to the new company. They also had some experience running garages.

Starting with one forecourt in Bury, they expanded rapidly, taking over under-performing petrol stations and redeveloping them to provide additional retail facilities (with various franchise partners including SPAR, Subway, Greggs and Starbucks), turning them profitable again. Zuber Issa was credited with driving the expansion, while Mohsin Issa focused on day-to-day operations.

This business model was scaled up significantly in 2009, when they purchased the notorious motorway service area at Bolton West, completely rebuilding the two complexes.

It was announced between April 2013 and September 2015 that Euro Garages had purchased around 300 corporate filling stations from Esso and Shell; a huge number, benefitting from the fuel brands wanting less involvement in UK retailing. Euro Garages added a selection of their partner brands to these sites as part of their investment plan, attracting criticism as some customers preferred the fuel brand's own food offerings.

Euro Garages were the first operator to introduce Starbucks on the Go to their filling stations, replacing Coffee Nation in June 2013. They appeared at more motorway service areas after purchasing the filling stations at sites where operators didn't want to be involved with the forecourt.

Their rapid expansion included developing a number of sites next to busy motorway junctions, including Markham Vale on the M1 and Frontier Park by the M65. These are often part of what are known as 'New-to-Industry' sites. These weren't signed from the motorway (which would bound them by more regulations), but instead relied on being highly visible; a process which was banned in 2022. They generally contained limited HGV parking, with a focus on drive thru fast food units.

Beyond Fuel

EG Group branding on the wall of one of their services, introduced in 2018.

Euro Garages inherited hotels from their purchase of Rivington and a similar site at Monmouth. They started building new Starbucks buildings, usually drive thrus. Mostly these were alongside petrol stations they already owned, but some were not.

The company merged with EFR Group in 2016, creating EG Group. So far, most sites had glass frontages and mostly promoted the names of their brand partners, including the fuel retailer, meaning the name 'Euro Garages' had not been well known. Two which did have prominent 'Euro Garages' signs, Rivington and Monmouth, never updated their branding. The merger meant they now had presence in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, which was the start of a major expansion across the world.

In the UK, EG Group purchased 78 Little Chefs on 1 February 2017. Many of these restaurants were next to forecourts Euro Garages had already acquired. During a long refurbishment process, the smaller restaurants became franchises such as Starbucks or KFC, while the larger ones were eventually converted to become several franchises under one roof, resembling a miniature version of some of the busiest service stations in the country. They were painted all-black and eventually received some prominent 'EG Group' branding, creating a visible EG Group corporate image for the first time.

A brief partnership with Sainsbury's, introducing Sainsbury's Local stores, didn't work out, but they later opened small Sainsbury's On the go stores under licence within some of their petrol stations and amenity buildings. Most EG Group stores remained SPAR-branded.

EG Group purchased Leon's restaurants in 2021, which brought their British operation closer to the restaurant and supply sectors. Leon was integrated into some service areas, including rival Roadchef sites.

Another potential merger came to light in 2022, as talks were reported with Couche-Tard, who operate the fuel, food and shopping brand Circle K. This ultimately didn't happen. In fact the Issa brothers were associated with many possible takeovers during this period, including Topshop, Boots, Subway, McColl's and Caffè Nero.

EG Group began rolling out 'EV Point' charging points in 2023, slightly after most of their competitors. They later announced a partnership with Tesla that would allow them to roll these points out across their estate.

Break Up

While EG Group was successful, its thirst for acquisition meant it was in debt by a total of £7.3billion in 2019. Many insiders were speculating as to how this was going to end.

After the Issa brothers purchased Asda in October 2020, Asda began to be integrated into EG Group, including some 'Asda on the Move' stores in petrol stations. The suggestion was that EG Group were attracted to Asda's forecourts, which could become part of their 'food and fuel' empire. "New information" was said to have come to light in October 2021, pausing matters.

A restructuring plan began in October 2023, which saw the majority of EG Group's UK operations be taken over by new sibling Asda, resulting in the EG Group name being publicly replaced by 'Asda Express'; a different brand to 'Asda on the Move'. This included Leon, and their Greggs, Subway and Burger King operations; highly unusual for a UK supermarket, as was the inclusion of the lodge at Monmouth. Their chairman called it "a consumer champion like the UK has never seen", while the GMB union said it was about "using ASDA as a cash cow to pay off their debts".

The KFC sites were sold back to KFC, splitting up some service areas. A small number of UK petrol stations were retained and purchased by Zuber Issa, who began his own business, 'EG On The Move'. The cherished Blackburn head office was closed with redundancies as the remains of the company focused on America. Zuber Issa stated in January 2025 that the business would likely be renamed to the Cumberland Farms Group, after the American convenience store chain of the same name.

Legacy and Impact

The building at Beacon Hill, which EG Group called "dated" and pushed to replace, but this is now Asda's responsibility.

EG Group was hailed as an example of great entrepreneurship, with little examination of the business's sustainability or morals. It would be impossible to have had so much success so fast without causing some upset.

The company was dependent on its start-up loan from Europlast, a separate business who's attitude to employee safety was labelled "appalling" by the HSE. Mohsin Issa appeared before the Commons' Business and Trade Select Committee in July 2023, where "treatment of staff" was one of the topics raised regarding Asda.

It would later emerge that EG Group failed to pay their low wage UK staff a total of £824,000 between 2015 and 2019, due to what the company called "historic payroll issues".

While the Issa brothers became one of the richest families in the UK, it was EG Group which paid over £7million for their private jets.

In Blackburn, the brothers have a street named after them, with the local authority smitten by their decision to open a large head office in the town; a big investment in a building which soon became empty. They were labelled 'Entrepreneur of the Year' in 2018.

EG Group's founders were nominated for CBEs in October 2020, noting their success and charity work. They are reported to donate 2.5% of their wealth to charity, with their Issa Foundation supporting local hospitals and deprived schoolchildren.

Service Areas

While most of EG Group's expansion was into topics and places outside the remit of this website, their purchase of Little Chef is worthy of further examination.

EG Group were praised for "safeguarding jobs" by buying the chain. Their plan to convert most sites into a combined Starbucks and Burger King fell through; a delay that would ultimately outlive their right to use the Little Chef name, causing them to quickly invent the EG Diner brand name. Many diner staff commented on the lengths they went to, to launch the new brand, with few resources and no idea what the long-term strategy was.

The 78 sites purchased seemed to be too much to examine on a case-by-case basis, so instead branding decisions were made en masse, some of which didn't work and resulted in sections or even whole buildings being left empty. Some refurbishment periods were lengthy and saw staff leave, and others found the transition from experienced waiter to fast food worker too much and left anyway. Some who were impacted by redundancies told us they had aggrievements with the process but did not raise them.

Some of the Little Chef buildings they had purchased were old: Fourwentways dated back to 1965. This really began to show when they were 'modernised'. Now in the hands of Asda, some of these buildings are in a very poor state, if not entirely derelict. Even under EG Group, they stand out as a strange and unhelpful acquisition; there were only a handful of sites, like Thame, which they made much use of. Others may argue that having these buildings to experiment with was key to EG Group being able to expand as a food brand.

While the role of Asda in running dedicated petrol stations makes sense - much like how Tesco also operates local petrol stations - exactly how Asda will take to running so many fast food stores remains unclear, especially as the Issas are now less involved. Asda already intend to sell the hotel attached to the Monmouth branch, calling it "no longer required".

In addition, the break-up of EG Group occurring during such a rapid expansion resulted in numerous projects being left in limbo. This allowed rival giant Welcome Break to usurp the major Bridgwater and Stretton Point developments.

EG Group Services

EG Group operated a wide variety of petrol and catering facilities across the country, but only one signposted motorway service area:

Supporting Facilities

EG Group provided some catering alongside other operators' facilities at these signposted service areas:

A-road Services

In addition, EG Group used to operate forecourts and more at the following official service areas:

Unbuilt Services

The following sites were planned by EG Group and likely to have been opened as fully signed service areas, however they were never built: