Happy Eater was a chain of restaurants in England and Wales, founded in 1973 by Michael Pickard, who wanted to compete against Little Chef, the only national chain of roadside restaurants at the time. The company's first major move was converting Welcome Break restaurants into Happy Eater locations. The brand then further expanded by being sold to the Imperial Group, and forming a partnership with Esso garages, which saw a rapid increase of new roadside locations in the 1980s. The restaurants offered similar fare to Little Chef, such as offering English breakfasts and fish and chips. A distinctive difference to customers between the two chains was that Happy Eater provided outdoor animal-themed playground equipment for children. Outlets were mostly located in the Midlands and the South East of England, with many locations situated along the A1 road corridor. In 1986, Trusthouse Forte, who owned Little Chef at the time, went on to acquire Happy Eater from the Imperial Group. In 1995, Granada purchased Trusthouse Forte, and began to streamline their business by converting the Happy Eater locations into Little Chef locations. By the end of 1997, all Happy Eater restaurants either completed the transition, or were closed. The defunct brand is currently owned by Hybrid Dining Limited, a subsidiary of Kout Food Group, who also own Little Chef.
History
In 1973 a former managing director of the hotel group Trust House Forte, Michael Pickard, founded a family-orientated roadside restaurant, aimed at competing with the established pre-eminent chain in the industry, Little Chef. By 1980 Pickard had built up a chain of 21 restaurants when he sold Happy Eater to the Imperial Group conglomerate. Imperial expanded the chain to 75 restaurants, before selling the chain in 1986 to Trust House Forte, who owned the Little Chef chain. Trusthouse Forte continued to expand the Happy Eater chain alongside Little Chef. The Happy Eater chain employed female table serving staff. Male staff were reserved for management, cooking, dishwashing and other support roles. Until, in 1985, a male employee named Ron Weekes, working at the Broadbridge Heath, West Sussex restaurant, requested an opportunity to work front of house, waiting tables. This opportunity was granted by the duty manager, thus Weekes became the first male waiter across the national chain. The chain received media attention in 1991 when Prime Minister John Major stopped at a Happy Eater outlet for a fried breakfast on his way to a Young Conservatives conference. Trusthouse Forte was taken over in 1995 by Granada.
Defunct
In 1995, Little Chef began to takeover Happy Eater locations, and by the end of 1997, all Happy Eater restaurants were either converted into Little Chef, or closed. Following various changes in ownership, Little Chef itself began to hit financial difficulties in the mid-2000s, before eventually dissolving in January 2018.
Legacy
Since 1996, a Mauritianrestaurant chain has traded as "Happy Eater." In addition to the same name, it also has a logo similar to that of its British-founded counterpoint.
