Roadchef was founded in July 1973 by Lindley Catering Investments and Galleon World Travel. The company was originally family owned but in November 1995 was sold to a management team. In May 1998, the company was sold to Japanese investors. It was later found that £29 million of shares that should have been distributed to ordinary workers through the employee ownership scheme had been transferred to Tim Ingram Hill, one of the management team. A prolonged legal battle ensued, the courts declaring the transaction void and ordering Mr Ingram Hill to repay the profit he made from the shares he appropriated. As of June 2020, due to a dispute with HMRC, the money has still not been distributed to the staff who should have received it. An Early Day Motion was tabled in Parliament in September 2019 by Neil Gray MP, who has campaigned extensively on behalf of the staff, criticising HMRC for failing to resolve the dispute. It was reported in July 2019 by the Emloyee Benefit Trust's trustee that a dispute with HMRC is the only remaining obstacle to the distribution of the money, and that the current Roadchef management have been fully supportive of the process. Neil Gray raised the issue once again during Prime Minister's Questions in Parliament in January 2020, in response to which, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that he would ask the Chancellor of the Exchequor to "discuss the matter." Over the years Roadchef have acquired a portfolio of 21 sites. A large expansion occurred in 1998 when Roadchef agreed to purchase Blue Boar Group and Take A Break for £80 million and thus proceeded to integrate these acquisitions into an enlarged Roadchef Group. At the time, Blue Boar was the fourth largest operator of motorway services areas in the UK with three operational sites and one development site. The acquired Watford Gap site was the first motorway service area to be opened in the UK in 1959 and is one of the UK's best known sites. A few years ago, "Roadchef Motorways was one of the largest Motorway Services Area operators in the UK, with 21 sites representing 24% of the market and serving some 60 million visitors each year."
