BP team to help revive Little Chef?

Little Chef has appointed the team behind BP's Wild Bean café to roll out its new "Bean Here" grab-and-go offer.

The four BP employees, who will join on 1 December, will be headed by Nick Smith - currently category buyer for Wild Bean.

"Twenty million people a year spend money at Little Chef and another 20 million stop to use its toilets. The new range will make more people stop for food," said Little Chef owner Lawrence Wosskow.

The £5m roll-out, which will create 1,000 jobs, will start at the rate of four per week in January 2006. It is being funded by the sale-and-leaseback of 65 Little Chef sites.

Wosskow said the deal would leave Little Chef "debt-free" by the end of February 2006.

Wosskow and co-owner Simon Heath also plan to spend 1m on changing roadside signage and adding a minimum of three new signs per unit across the 250-strong estate.

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