Guide to Upper Crust

Upper Crust and The Pasty Shop are two bakery and coffee chains, which in Britain are mostly associated with railway stations, even though they have appeared at many service areas.

Every Upper Crust and The Pasty Shop was operated by SSP. When Granada became a sister company of SSP in 2000, they started opening Upper Crust units in their motorway service areas, replacing Granada's self-branded snack store. They also opened some Upper Crust units in their Little Chef restaurants.

The relationship with Little Chef was short-lived, but the motorway branches lasted for a few more years, long after Granada had become Moto. Even after Moto split from SSP in 2006, most of the Upper Crusts continued to operate as franchises, and a new one opened at Cherwell Valley in 2010. This would go on to be their final Moto franchise, until it closed in 2020.

A new partnership with Welcome Break began in 2018. These units were operated by Welcome Break as franchises, mostly under The Pasty Shop brand name.

Following losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, SSP Group announced 5,000 potential redundancies in July 2020, the majority of which would impact Upper Crust. The motorway franchises weren't affected by that announcement, but separately, Welcome Break's removed their units in June 2023, as they want to use their own The Good Bakery brand instead.

An SSP Upper Crust and Pasty Shop pairing opened at Leeds Skelton Lake services in 2020. The Pasty Shop closed in December 2023 and Upper Crust closed in February 2024, ending over 20 years of Upper Crust on the motorway.

Locations

Upper Crust used to be found at the following service areas:

• Bridgwater (M5)
• Cherwell Valley (M40/A43)
• Hilton Park (M6)
• Knutsford (M6)
• Leeds Skelton Lake (M1)
• Leigh Delamere (M4)
• Medway (M2)
• Oxford (forecourt) (M40/A40)
• Peartree (A34/A44)
• Pease Pottage (M23/A23)
• Reading (M4)
• Stafford northbound (M6)
• Toddington northbound (M1)
• Wetherby (A1(M))

The Pasty Shop used to be found at the following service areas:

• Leeds Skelton Lake (M1)
• Oxford (forecourt) (M40/A40)
• Telford (forecourt) (M54)
• Warwick (forecourt) (M40)