Forte Group
Forte Group plc was a British hotel and restaurant company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Granada in 1996. Its head office was in the London Borough of Camden.[1]
Company type
Slaters and Bodega 
1935
2001
Acquired
History[edit]
Charles Forte (26 November 1908 – 28 February 2007) was a British/Italian caterer and hotelier who founded the leisure and hotels conglomerate that ultimately became Forte Group. Charles Forte, funded by his two business partners, Eric Hartwell and Sidney Hartwell, set up his first "milk bar" on Regent Street in London in 1935 as Strand Milk Bar Ltd when he was 26.[2]
Soon he began expanding into catering and hotel businesses. After the Second World War, his company became Forte Holdings Ltd, and bought The Café Royal in 1954.[2] Forte was a major caterer at the Festival of Britain sites in 1951 and also operated the restaurants and bars at London Airport, later known as London Heathrow airport. Forte opened the first full motorway service station for cars at Newport Pagnell in 1960. [2] Forte expanded into the confectionery business, first by purchasing Fullers, based in Hammersmith, before purchasing the larger Terry's of York in 1963.[3] Trust Houses Group Ltd (previously Trust Houses Ltd) and Forte Holdings merged in 1970 to become Trust Houses Forte or THF.[2] The name was simplified to Trusthouse Forte in 1979.[4]
Through mergers and expansion, the Forte Group expanded into a multibillion-pound business. As well as The Café Royal, it also owned the Grosvenor House Hotel, Quaglino's and Talk of the Town in London.[5] It also included the Little Chef roadside restaurants, Forte Grand, Travelodge, Posthouse and Crest hotels, Harvester restaurants, contract catering firm Gardner Merchant, the Summerland leisure complex on the Isle of Man, the wine merchant Grierson-Blumenthal, sporting goods retailer Lillywhites (which adjoined the group's Criterion Restaurant) and a majority (although non-controlling) stake in the Savoy Hotel. Internationally, it owned the Hotel George V, Plaza Athénée and Hotel de la Tremoille in Paris and the Bermudiana in Bermuda.[5][6] Happy Eater and the five Welcome Break service areas were bought from Hanson Trust on 1 August 1986.[2] The group for a time started to resemble a conglomerate with interests spanning the Sidgwick & Jackson publishing house, the Terry's chocolate company, Puritan Maid and a stake in Thomas Cook travel agents.[7]
Charles Forte was the CEO from 1971 and chairman upon the retirement of Eric Hartwell from 1983 (when his son Rocco Forte took over as CEO).[2]
In the early 1990s, the company was rebranded as Forte and the crown logo was adopted at the same time. This rebranding also heralded the introduction of sub brand groups for almost all the hotels (Posthouse, Crest, Heritage, Grand etc.). Lord Forte passed full control to Rocco in 1993. In 1994, the company purchased the Le Méridien hotel chain.[8] Soon after Rocco took over, the Forte Group was faced with a hostile takeover bid from Granada. Ultimately, Granada succeeded with a £3.9 billion tender offer in January 1996, which left the family with around £350 million in cash.[9]
In 2001, following the de-merger of Compass plc from Granada's media interests, the use of the Forte trademark was returned to Sir Rocco Forte in a gesture intended to dispel the bitter legacy of the takeover. Rocco now owns the Rocco Forte Hotels group.[10]