Applegreen Plc has posted a revenue increase 11.6% in Ireland, according to its latest financial results.
It's ROI gross profit increased by 12.9%, its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2018 showed.
On an international scale the roadside retailer posted a revenue increase of 41% to €2.0 billion in its financial year 2017.
"We are delighted to announce another strong set of results for Applegreen," Bob Etchingham its CEO said.
"The performance was driven by ongoing expansion of our estate, positive like for like growth despite weather related disruption and strong fuel margin performance, particularly in the fourth quarter of the year."
ROI Fuel Gross Profit
Total fuel gross profit increased by 17.1% compared to 2017 and increased by 9.7% on a like for like basis', the Petrol Filling Station operator said in a statement.
The group said that this reflected the impact of an additional contribution from the Joint Fuel Terminal acquisition in Dublin which was acquired in mid-2017.
Like for like food and store sales and gross profit increased year on year by 3.3% and 2.0%, respectively, despite the adverse winter weather impact in March and the summer heatwave conditions, the report showed.
It also outlined that its 'dealer and fuel card volumes have continued to grow and now account for 32% of ROI fuel volumes on a combined basis'.
Operational Highlights
In October 2018, acquired a majority stake in Welcome Break, the second largest Motorway Service Area operator in the UK, which was financed through debt and an equity fundraise.
The Irish-owned company announced the completion of the acquisition of UK forecourt operator Welcome Break on the 2 November last year.
The deal, which is reportedly worth €360 million, was first announced by Applegreen at the beginning of August, which resulted in the Irish operator holding a 50.01% stake in one of the leading motorway service area operators in the UK.
The Welcome Break portfolio comprises 34 Motorway Service Area sites, three Trunk Road Service Area sites and 29 hotels (23 co-located on Service Area sites and six stand-alone hotels) across the UK motorway network.
Etchingham outlined, that the integration of Welcome Break is proceeding well and existing Applegreen UK services areas has successfully transferred into the business.
"The Applegreen business continued to expand in each of our three markets as we increased our estate by 130 sites to a total of 472 locations," said Etchingham.
"We opened 16 new sites in the Republic of Ireland, 61 in the UK (including 43 acquired Welcome Break sites) and 53 in the US in FY2018."
'During the year' the forecourt retailer said, 'we expanded our Republic of Ireland estate by 16 sites which included three Service Area sites, four Petrol Filling Station sites and nine dealer sites.'
There were a total of 193 sites trading at the end of the year.
Other Highlights
The group's gross profit increased by 55% on FY 2017 to €282.3 million.
Other highlights from the preliminary report showed that its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 46% to €58.1 million in FY 2018 from €39.8 million in FY 2017.
Excluding the Welcome Break acquisition, Applegreen's adjusted EBITDA increased by 20% to €47.8m in 2018.
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
