Applegreen has agreed to sell its UK petrol filling business (PFS) and will use the proceeds from the transaction to invest in its business in Ireland, the UK, and the United States.
Applegreen’s UK petrol filling station business, which has 98 sites and employs 1,142 people, is being sold to EG On The Move, a UK operator of filling stations and convenience stores. The sale is expected to close at the end of this month.
All of the staff employed by Applegreen’s UK PFS business are expected to transfer to the new owners as part of the transaction, apart from a very small number of employees who work in functions where there is overlap with the new owner. These employees are either being redeployed or have been offered a redundancy programme. Applegreen has been in consultation will all the employees in question in recent weeks.
The sale does not affect Applegreen’s Welcome Break business in the UK, which also includes its operations in Northern Ireland, which employs more than 6,000 people at its 59 sites, including 34 Motorway Service Areas (MSAs), and 31 hotels.
“We remain totally committed to our presence and further expansion in the UK market and have significant plans to expand both Welcome Break and our EV charging business there, as part of the €1 billion investment plan that we announced late last year,” said Applegreen Co-Founder and Chief Executive Joe Barrett.
“We are growing the Welcome Break business in the UK by developing new-build locations and revamping many of our existing sites. We have a strong pipeline of additional UK sites for development on locations adjacent to motorways and alongside a number of major A-roads. This week, for example, we will open a new £55 million (€66 million) state-of-the-art Welcome Break MSA on the M1 near Rotherham.”
In Ireland, Applegreen will be continuing to invest in its petrol filling station business, as it is an integral part of its Irish operations. “The roll out of our successful M&S partnership, which is currently in 21 locations, will continue and we are also investing to expand our Braeburn Coffee brand,” Mr Barrett said. “There will also be further investment in new sites, and upgrades to existing locations.”
In the UK and US, Applegreen is increasingly focussing on larger sites, with food at the heart of the customer offer.
Applegreen will also continue to invest heavily in its EV charging business in Ireland, the UK and the United States, with an €85 million expansion programme planned over the next five years.
