Moto: Difference between revisions
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In 2000 Granada attempted to bring things in order by merging with the '''Compass Group''', and then separating Granada's media interests from everything else. The business was formally demerged in 2001, with Compass taking responsibility for its motorway and A-road services, operated under the subsidiary '''Compass Roadside'''. | In 2000 Granada attempted to bring things in order by merging with the '''Compass Group''', and then separating Granada's media interests from everything else. The business was formally demerged in 2001, with Compass taking responsibility for its motorway and A-road services, operated under the subsidiary '''Compass Roadside'''. | ||
Compass worked with Fallon, the company who helped change the image of Škoda, to improve the reputation of its motorway services. | Compass worked with Fallon, the company who helped change the image of Škoda, to improve the reputation of its motorway services. Without access to the Granada name, they created 'Moto', and promised to provide "a better, continental-feeling service". A deliberately simple name was used, and existing firms named Moto in Cornwall and Spain were paid to stop using it. Special attention was paid separately to how to serve children, pets, coach drivers and truckers. | ||
The new Compass was itself a large business. As well as having acquired many brands from Granada, they had their own, including those ran by '''Select Service Partner'''. Compass were able to introduce these to Moto, such as [[Upper Crust]] and the groundbreaking [[Marks and Spencer Simply Food|M&S Simply Food]]. | The new Compass was itself a large business. As well as having acquired many brands from Granada, they had their own, including those ran by '''Select Service Partner'''. Compass were able to introduce these to Moto, such as [[Upper Crust]] and the groundbreaking [[Marks and Spencer Simply Food|M&S Simply Food]]. | ||
Revision as of 16:24, 18 October 2020
| Locations: | 58 sites and 2 forecourts |
| Introduced: | 2001 |
| Predecessors: | Granada |
| Acquired by: | Universities Superannuation Scheme |
| Chief executive: | Ken McMeikan |
| Head office address: | Moto Hospitality Limited Head Office PO Box 218 Toddington [Motorway Services] Bedfordshire LU5 6QG [map] |
| Phone number: | 01525 873933 |
Moto (officially known as Moto Hospitality) is the UK's largest motorway service area operator. They were the first to introduce many brands and ideas which are now common at services across the country.
To encourage social distancing, Moto are now offering click and collect on some facilities. They are trialling a new fuel pledge at three trial sites, where over the summer of 2020 Moto's fuel prices will be competing with local (non-supermarket) petrol stations.
Moto Today
Moto's services date back to 1965. As a result, even though they are continuing to develop new sites, in many places Moto are constrained by old buildings, haphazard extensions and small sites.
Having previously displayed their partner's brand logos prominently - more prominently than their own - Moto have now tidied this up a bit, and they are refurbishing the entrance to their buildings to include a new lobby with dark grey colours and the name of the site - a small touch which had been mostly retired under Granada.
Throughout the 2010s, these entrances were accompanied by a number of takeaway stands, in an effort to get customers to grab something as they headed back to their car. These have now moved inside, as the old restaurant areas become more empty.
They have their own charity, Moto in the Community Trust, who help out the local area surrounding their services.
As of 2016, Moto's busiest services are Cherwell Valley, Wetherby and Toddington. Moto are also introducing new indoor play areas for families.
Moto hold the unwelcome title of owning the worst-performing service area in all three Transport Focus surveys conducted so far. This may be skewed by their large number of sites, especially old or quiet ones. Their overall satisfaction score is usually one of the lowest too.
Catering
Moto have tried several experiments to make the most out of the catering business, rather than relying on traditional fast food outlets.
In 2013, the restaurant at Birch was replaced with a fish and chip shop called Ernie's, and a Harvester was introduced to Donington.
In 2015 and 2016, the food courts at several M4 services were thoroughly refurbished and gained an unusual line-up of Chow, El Mexicana and an own-brand patisserie called Arlo's. New bars also opened at Exeter and Lymm.
After a successful trial, Moto have introduced a Greggs to most of their services, mostly at the front. Stand-alone West Cornwall Pasty Company and Costa units have also been built. These all sell takeaway food only for tax reasons.
Meanwhile, they replaced the Little Chefs and Caffè Ritazza they inherited each with Costa outlets, and Fresh Express was changed to EDC - but then removed all together in some places. They continue to have a Burger King at all their sites.
By 2020, most EDCs and Arlo's have closed. This suggests Moto are looking to stop selling sit-down meals entirely.
Retail
While the estate they inherited from Granada included a whole host of shopping names, under Moto these were almost all moved out. Instead, they were the first operator to change all of their own shops to WHSmith franchises.
Moto's biggest retail success has been the trial and roll-out of the popular M&S Simply Food chain, which when it was introduced it was described by critics as being "well worth driving on the motorway for alone".
Company History
See also: Granada
Most of Moto's services have previously operated under the name Granada, as part of their hospitality and media empire.
In 2000 Granada attempted to bring things in order by merging with the Compass Group, and then separating Granada's media interests from everything else. The business was formally demerged in 2001, with Compass taking responsibility for its motorway and A-road services, operated under the subsidiary Compass Roadside.
Compass worked with Fallon, the company who helped change the image of Škoda, to improve the reputation of its motorway services. Without access to the Granada name, they created 'Moto', and promised to provide "a better, continental-feeling service". A deliberately simple name was used, and existing firms named Moto in Cornwall and Spain were paid to stop using it. Special attention was paid separately to how to serve children, pets, coach drivers and truckers.
The new Compass was itself a large business. As well as having acquired many brands from Granada, they had their own, including those ran by Select Service Partner. Compass were able to introduce these to Moto, such as Upper Crust and the groundbreaking M&S Simply Food.
Compass eventually sold most of its brand names, and in 2006 this included Moto, purchased by Macquarie Bank for an estimated £600 million. Previous decisions to fill Granada/Moto services with so many sister brands had complicated consequences: at some services Moto owned the car park but the now-unrelated Little Chef owned the building. Moto renegotiated franchise agreements with some of its former sister brands, but took advantage of being free to experiment with rivals too.
In 2004, their website stated that Moto had a 39% market share in the motorway services business, and served over 120 million people.
Expansion
Very few new motorway services opened in the late 2000s. Their project at Wetherby claimed to be the greenest service station in the UK, and uses a model which has since been copied by other Moto projects, most notably Cherwell Valley.
Also in 2008, they bought services at Winchester and tried to buy two First services, but the latter plan fell through. At this point The Times listed Moto as being the 57th biggest private company (dropping 9 places since the year before), with annual sales of £786m and profits of £52m.
In 2014, Moto acquired the independent services at Leeming Bar. Since 2016 they have developed plans for many new services, of which Rugby is expected to be built soon.
Moto services are noticeable for their large number of Costa units. These became accompanied by other takeaway brands which would be positioned by the entrance to their services, to capture passing trade. Moto have tried several ideas to improve their restaurant dining offer too, including a re-brand of the previously minimalist EDC. They now seem to be sticking with fast food, primarily in the form of KFC.
Poplar 2000
Following their predecessor's acquisition of two separate truckstops in early 2000 to safeguard their market share against forthcoming road improvements in each area, those being Lymm and Barton Park, some Poplar 2000 branding was carried over from Lymm to Barton Park. The internal branding at each site has since moved towards the standard Moto affair.
Continental Europe
When Moto were introduced, Compass said they would be rolling the brand out across Europe, with up to 20 continental Motos opening. A 2001 report claimed that Moto ran 22 sites in Spain, Luxembourg and Italy, but this may have been a misunderstanding.
In March 2003, Compass entered into a joint venture with Italian firm Cremonini, to use the Moto brand at a new network of Italian service areas. A pilot Moto site opened at Bazzera Nord in July 2003, while 11 sites were rebranded from fellow Compass firm Autoplose.
The Italian Motos (legally called 'Moto SpA'; sometimes branded 'Moto Grill' or 'Moto Ristorante') usually offered a Ritazza (a bar), 'Da Leone' (bakery), 'Gusto' (a self-service restaurant), 'Il Mercatino' (a grocery store) and tourist information unit 'InfoPoint'. Like the British brand, the Italian Moto had a corner dedicated to parents of young children, named 'Moto Bebè'. It spoke highly of its commitment to customer service, focusing on quality of service, a relaxing experience and quick service speeds.
The combined firm's intention was to expand fast: Italian motorway service areas were based on contracts, and hundreds of existing contracts were due to expire in the coming years. In total 31 Italian branches of Moto opened, and the partnership reported revenue of €110.6million in 2005.
The Compass-Cremonini partnership ended in May 2006, and Cremonini purchased the rights to use the Moto name for a further five years. In January 2007, Cremonini announced that their Chef Express brand, which had mostly operated on Italian trains, would be used to replace Moto that year.
Two service areas in Austria had been run by Autoplose and were now owned by Moto SpA, but the Moto name was never used there.
In France, Aire de Sarthe Touraine is the one site known to have been branded Moto. It provided a Caffè Ritazza, Flunch Express, Bonne Journée as well as Shell fuel. It was run with Cofiroute, a French motorway operator. The amenity building was more like a large forecourt sales shop, but the Moto branding was removed in 2008.
Logo History
Moto's logo of a relaxed traveller (right) has been used ever since the company was first created. Their corporate colour was a shade of turquoise until 2015, when a monochrome colour scheme was introduced.
When the Moto brand was first introduced, each service station was given a tall sign by its main entrance, known as 'the goalpost'. This would rotate between several adverts for Moto, but now it just holds static logos, if it hasn't been removed all together. Moto now prefer a much smaller sign, listing all the brands available, and a giant digital advert from Admedia.
In June 2020, a totally new, simpler corporate logo was introduced. This was one of a number of minor changes to the public-facing side of the company which were observed.
Moto were the first of the operators to find a loophole in the law; by changing their operating logo to read 'Moto M&S Simply Food' at the appropriate sites, they can get round the strict regulations which prevent them from advertising their facilities on the motorway. Welcome Break and Roadchef soon copied this initiative. Keen to stay one step ahead of the game, Moto have announced their newest brand by making their logo read 'Costa M&S', giving no reference to Moto on the headerboard at all. This was followed by 'Caffè Ritazza Burger King' for the services which don't have a Costa, but now they all do.
Moto branding has been reduced within their services too, with even the large Moto logo by the motorway taken down. Some of the wider motorway signs began to use 'Greggs Costa M&S', the first to use three different brand names. Burger King and WHSmith were used if no other facilities are available.
Moto Services
See also: List of Moto services
A list of services operated by Moto can be found on this list, or you can view them on a map. Some of the more unusual ones are detailed below.
Small Services
When Moto was created, it included a number of smaller services which their owners weren't as interested in. Since then Moto have had a confusing relationship with various small services.
- Sutton Scotney was acquired by Moto but never re-branded, and eventually sold off
- Markfield was also acquired by Moto and branded as such, but was sold in 2011
- At least the shop at Cardiff Gate was ran by Moto but sold off
- Tiverton and Dover Port were acquired by Moto and are advertised on their website
- Todhills was acquired by Moto and redeveloped by them
- The forecourts and car parks at Warminster and Saltash were inherited by Moto and feature on their website. Colsterworth and Musselburgh were the same until 2014
- Moto took over Lymm and introduced their facilities there, but it wasn't included on their website until 2015 and the old branding is still used
- Barton Park was developed by Moto as a truckstop and wasn't included on their website until 2015
- Scotch Corner and Grantham North are indistinct to Moto's other services, despite being on A-roads
- Extra lease out their facilities to other operators. Moto run Greggs, West Cornwall Pasty Company, M&S units and Krispy Kreme stands at many of their services.
Planned Services
Moto are currently developing plans to build:
- Basingstoke (M3)
- Kings Langley (M25/A41)
- Rugby (M6)
- Sawtry (A1(M))
Unbuilt Services
Moto are understood to have developed unsuccessful plans for:
- Broadsworth (A1(M))
- Duxford (M11) - proposal only
- Maidenhead (M4/A308(M)/A404(M))
- Norton Canes (M6 Toll) - a contract arrangement
- Ripon (A1(M))
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