Brand New Collection Bays at JJ Sidcup Branch

MONEY MATTERS Record-breaking bank holiday on the motorway

Almost one million visitors take a break at Roadchef service areas over the 3-day weekend

MWith more families embarking on domestic holidays this year than ever before, leading motorway service area provider, Roadchef, has experienced its busiest summer since the start of the COVID pandemic – and one of the busiest in its trading history.

Almost 1 million people visited the company’s sites across the UK over the August bank holiday weekend. During this period, the company served almost 230,000 hot drinks and over 200,000 McDonald’s burgers. Mark Fox, CEO at Roadchef, said: “As we expected, it’s been an exceptionally busy summer on the road, particularly this bank holiday weekend. This is without question, one of the busiest weekends in our trading history and we are very proud that we have been able to provide a place for holidaymakers to stop and de-stress on their travels. We planned ahead for the crowds and ensured that there were sufficient dining options and space for more customers than ever before to visit our sites.” With the pandemic continuing to affect international travel plans, this year’s ‘staycation summer’ has seen millions of people take to the roads to visit British beauty spots in popular destinations including Cornwall and the Lake District. Roadchef sites on the way to these destinations, such as Killington Lake in Cumbria and Taunton Deane in Devon, experienced recordbreaking trade over the three days. But taking the crown as the most popular Roadchef motorway service area over the August bank holiday weekend was Strensham (combined North & South sites) on the M5, followed by Norton Canes on the M6 toll and Sedgemoor on the M5. To cater for the UK’s biggest staycation summer, Roadchef hosted interactive pop-up entertainment such as The Hedge People, Flower People and a Caricaturist to help rejuvenate travellers on long journeys at some of its Southwest sites including Taunton Deane and Sedgemoor. Further to this, the company also installed a number of outdoor food kiosks, in addition to their traditional offering, to offer grab-and-go delights including bagels and ice cream. Mark Fox concluded: “The last 18 months have been completely unprecedented; we have gone from being extremely quiet – welcoming occasional essential road users – at the height of the pandemic, to one of the busiest weekends on record. Its testament to the fantastic teams that we have at Roadchef that we are able to flex our business so dramatically to cater to demand. We are very much looking forward to what the rest of the year brings.”

Brand New Collection Bays at JJ Sidcup Branch

JJ Foodservice has invested in new collection bays at its Sidcup branch to boost capacity by 150% in response to increased demand for collection

The business launched a ‘Collect and Save’ campaign in July offering caterers savings of up to 30% when they order and pay online, for collection.

“The campaign has been so popular, we had to increase our capacity,” said Local Branch Manager, Iskren Mitkov.

“We now have fifteen new bays, up from six, ready for collection customers, helping more caterers to make great savings when they order online and collect,” he added.