| Often accompanied by: | T2, Scoop |
| Used by: | Moto, Welcome Break |
| Introduced: | 1990 |
| Removed: | 2011 |
| Predecessors: | none |
| Successors: | WHSmith |
www.thorntons.co.uk
Thorntons is a brand of chocolatiers who had a long run on the motorway network.
In 1999, Granada wanted to create mini-shopping centres at many of their services, and chose Thorntons as one of the brands they wanted to use to launch this. When Granada became Moto, the shopping centres were phased out and some of the Thorntons closed.
However, unlike other shopping names, some of the Thorntons stores survived until 2011. The last store was removed from the new Cherwell Valley, where it had replaced a previous store.
Thorntons didn't just work with Granada. In the early 1990s, Welcome Break launched some of the motorway network's first branded shops, and used Thorntons at some of these. It's not clear which services could be found at, but they could be found at Pavilion services too.
Locations
Thorntons used to be found at the following services:
- Cherwell Valley (M40/A43)
- Corley northbound (M6)
- Donington Park (M1/A42/A50)
- Ferrybridge (M62/A1)
- Hilton Park (M6)
- Leicester Forest East northbound (M1)
- Leigh Delamere (M4)
- Newport Pagnell northbound (M1)
- Reading (M4)
- Tamworth (M42/A5)
- Toddington (M1)
- Trowell (M1)