THE new owner of roadside restaurant chain Little Chef yesterday confirmed plans to sell most of the business.

Private equity group Permira bought the chain from catering group Compass last year as part of its acquisition of Travelodge, but is already planning to offload most of the restaurants.

It will keep 115 outlets that are next to its hotels and will put the remaining 182 up for sale early next year, along with the Little Chef brand. The brand will be franchised back to it by the new owner.

As well as the 297 restaurants run by Permira, there are another 40 franchise outlets at Moto service stations.

Little Chef, famous for its rotund cook logo, pictured, was once part of the Forte food empire. It hit the headlines earlier this year when it commissioned a slimmed-down version of its chef character, amid concerns about healthy eating, then later withdrew the plans.

The chain was founded in 1958, in Reading, Berkshire, with an 11-seat snack bar.

Although the company did not say how much the business to be sold was worth, analysts believe it may be between £30m and £50m.

Permira subsidiary TTLC will use the proceeds of the sale to pay debts incurred when it bought Travelodge. It will also help it expand the chain at a faster rate than expected. There are 250 low-cost hotels, but under new plans, another 150 will be added in the next year, compared with previous plans for only 100.

Travelodge chief executive Grant Hearn said: "As the group's focus is our core low-cost hotels business, it makes strategic sense for us to devote our full financial and management resources to this objective."