STARBUCKS is to open its coffee shops at motorway service stations for the first time after unveiling a tie-up with Welcome Break.

The first sites at Oxford Services on the M40 and Hopwood Park on the M42 will open before Easter.

The tie-up is set see 29 Coffee Primo shops being rebranded as Starbucks over the next 16 months.

Starbucks, with more than 600 outlets in the UK, has a drive-thru in Cardiff ,but has no outlets at UK motorway services. Welcome Break caters for 80m people a year at its 24 sites, including Hartshead on the M62.