The Maxol Group today announced its full year trading figures for 2023 with CEO, Brian Donaldson forecasting an even stronger performance for 2024 following an investment programme of some €65 million during 2023/2024.
Brian Donaldson (pictured) said that despite continuous investment in its operations and the challenges of the last four years (including Covid pandemic, inflation, Brexit and global geo-political unrest), The Group finished 2023 in a strong financial position, with no net bank debt and a substantial cash surplus.
2023 Group1 turnover was €756 million , with cost of fuel down this represented a decrease of €120 million on 2022 (€876 million).
Group profit after tax was €27.5 million (€37.8 million in 2022, which included a once-off gain from the sale of a valuable property in Dublin 4).
“More than 40% of Maxol’s gross profit now comes from non-fuel sales, which is central to the repositioning of the company as a leading convenience retailer,” said Brian Donaldson. “Income from convenience retail and food and car washing together with new mobility offerings have grown significantly in importance for The Group.
“Driving the repositioning of the business is a multi-million investment programme in our store network. The service station of 2024 is very different to that of ten years ago and we are creating destination stores that offer a wide-range of eat-in and food-to-go options, where customers can have a meal or a coffee and access good Wi-Fi in comfortable surrounds.” Maxol’s €65 million investment in the business since 2023 includes:
The acquisition of nine new sites, which are now operating under the Maxol brand.
The redevelopment / retrofit of twelve stores in ROI and five in NI with innovations such as new food concepts, upgraded car wash and pay at pump facilities, Wi-Fi, more parking and more choice of goods and services for customers.
The redevelopment of an additional three sites in ROI and two in NI are nearing completion, including M3 Mulhuddart, where there will be a new Zambrero and Supermacs drive-thru.
Maxol’s first Ultra Rapid EV Hub in ROI in Newbridge launched this year, featuring six high speed 200kw chargers offering a 15 minute charge time.
Burger City, is now part of the enhanced food offering at Maxol Adamstown and Maxol M7 in Kill.
Acquisition driving growth
Earlier this year, seven forecourt sites in Leinster were acquired from Naas Fuels Limited trading under the Circle K brand, the convenience retail stores of which operated under the Gala brand. The multi-million Euro investment has been supported by a €3 million retrofitting programme, which will be completed by end November and the rebranded Maxol stores offering the latest Maxol instore concepts with a Maxol Deli and ROSA Coffee stations.
Killeens in Wexford and Candy’s in Carnew, Wicklow also joined the Maxol network during the 2023/2024 period bringing to 250 the number of Maxol service stations on the island of Ireland. 122 are company owned (89 in ROI, 33 in NI) with 128 supplied under the Maxol brand and operating as independent dealer-owned sites (58 ROI, 70 in NI).
“This has been a very big year for the company with acquisitions and redevelopments dominating our growth strategy,” said Brian Donaldson. “We remain hugely ambitious and will go into 2025 looking to acquire more sites in good locations that present strong convenience retail opportunities. We are focused on sites where we know that non-fuel sales can yield over 67% of gross profit, in line with the repositioning of the Maxol business.”
EV slow down
Maxol’s investment strategy includes the roll out of more ultra rapid EV hubs, but Brian Donaldson explained that the slowdown in EV adoption could impact the speed at which the business would develop its EV charging network.
“We launched our first Ultra Rapid EV hub for the Republic of Ireland in Newbridge earlier this year. This followed the launch of Northern Ireland’s first dedicated Ultra Rapid EV hub in Kinnegar, Co Down in 2022 and Maxol Braid River, Ballymena in 2023.
“However, EV adoption has slowed; new EV sales2 to October are down almost 26% on 2023. While we recognise that our sector has a key role to play in supporting EV adoption, we are faced with significant challenges. Planning delays and access to power capacity have been issues from day one, but now we are also concerned about developing our charging network too quickly, when the demand isn’t there. EV technology is evolving continuously, so we have to manage the pace of our own development to safeguard against becoming outdated too soon.
“The market is experiencing a chicken and egg conundrum and all stakeholders, particularly government, need to revisit ways in which drivers can be better incentivised to make the switch to electric. Notwithstanding, we will open our next Ultra Rapid EV hub in Rathnew in 2025 and a number of other sites, where we can see the demand, are being considered.
Value amid intensified competition
Brian Donaldson outlined how despite intense competition in the retail convenience market, with all retailers competing for a share of household income, Maxol has seen customers continue to shop locally, favouring convenience and with average transactional spend up.
“Shopping behaviours are value driven and we have seen this trend deepen this year, but not at the expense of quality or time,” said Brian Donaldson. “Our customers value their time as much as they value quality so we have to ensure we deliver on both. Our loyalty app, for example, offers rewards on coffee, car wash and extra value in-store, and also allows customers to pay for their fuel directly from the app.
“By investing in our forecourts and stores and by using technology we are making the customer journey a faster and more rewarding experience – a frictionless one. So paying at the pump or on the app, self-service check-outs, more food options, contactless payments on car washes and more parking are all contributing to attracting and importantly, retaining customers.”
2024 Highlights
The rollout of Maxol’s ROSA Coffee concept, including new coffee machines at 81 company-owned stores following the launch of oat milk and iced coffee variants. Maxol ROSA Coffee cup sales and Barista coffee in NI for 2024 are expected to hit 4.3 million, an increase of 3.3% on 2023.
Maxol’s car wash business continues to perform well, and an expected 665k vehicles will pass through a Maxol car wash in 2024.
Maxol Lubricants, a division of The Maxol Group, completed a packaging refresh of the existing line of products. All lubricants packaging now contains at least 30% and up to 50% recycled plastic, in line with the company’s wider efforts to reduce its environmental footprint across the business.
Maxol hvoPRO, a second generation biofuel produced from renewable feedstocks that reduces carbon emissions by up to 90% vs regular diesel was introduced to eight forecourts, with additional sites being added over the coming months. In 2024, Maxol transitioned 50% of our fleet to hvoPRO, achieving a reduction of circa 45% in annual carbon emissions.
Brian Donaldson believes that the opportunities for HVO in motoring, agriculture and aviation are enormous, and that government needs to reduce the duty on more sustainable fuels to help encourage and grow adoption.
Maxol won Best Sustainable Strategy for the Braid River Service Station in Ballymena at the recent National Forecourt Awards. Green initiatives at the site include an Ultra Rapid EV Charging Hub, Co2 cooled glass door refrigeration, LED lighting, solar panels, heat pump technology, solar-efficient glazing and a water reuse system. This approach is being introduced to all redevelopments with the objective of reducing energy costs and the carbon footprint of each site by 40%.
The company’s Homegrown at Maxol programme entered its second year giving local producers an opportunity to have their products distributed across the network of Maxol stores in ROI. Homegrown at Maxol offers customers more high-quality products from local Irish producers such as the programme’s 2024 winners; The Foods of Athenry, All Real Nutrition, fiid, Parachute and Blanco Nino.
Local
Brian Donaldson confirmed that he was looking ahead to 2025 with confidence amid further plans for growth as part of The Maxol Group’s five year, €175m investment strategy (2023-2027). “While we are growing at a steady and controlled pace we are fast becoming known for our high quality food and retail convenience offering. However, our long-established values as a family-owned business have not changed. These values guide our strategy, which is to develop and acquire sites that are located in local communities and that are operated by local people, employing local people.”
Operating as an Irish family business for more than 104 years, Maxol employs 85 people directly and more than 1,300 indirectly across the island of Ireland.
