Many of the brands at Extra locations including M&S Simply Food, Costa Coffee and Greggs are operated by Moto, the UK's largest service area operator and Extra's biggest competitor.

Extra is the fourth largest service station operator in the UK behind Moto (1st), Welcome Break (2nd) and RoadChef (3rd).

It came into operation after the government deregulated motorway services to encourage more competition and its first site opened in December 2000, at Cambridge.

[citation needed] Extra developed its first three service stations at a cost of £60 million.

Its service stations are designed by Nash and Partners of West Sussex.