Death of a catering executive

The Times today carries an obituary of John Greenwood, the former chief executive of RoadChef. According to the obit,

John Greenwood was a captain of the food service industry who as chief executive of the RoadChef chain of motorway service stations from 2001 to 2004 made sure that a decent cup of coffee was finally available to British motorists.

I know that it’s a general rule in obituaries not to speak ill of the dead, and I’m sure that John Greenwood was a very competent chief executive. But it’s rather stretching a point to give the impression that he alone, or even that RoadChef, finally gave MSA customers what they want. A quick glance through the comments here will dispel that idea!

The obit goes on to say this about Norton Canes:

Resembling a Scandinavian airport lounge rather than a traditional roadside greasy spoon, the £15 million complex boasted sleek furnishings, food cooked to order and, most importantly, clean, modern washrooms and lavatories. It set the benchmark for the industry.

Again, this looks like hyperbole to me. I’ve used Norton Canes and, while it’s certainly better than most, it’s not outstandingly so. And it’s nothing particularly special, in terms of design – it’s pretty much the same as all of the newer generation of MSAs. And “food cooked to order” was actually a feature of most of the earliest MSAs – until the operators realised that most customers wanted simply wanted fast food instead. Plus ca change.