More than 40% of The Maxol Group’s profit now comes from non-fuel sales.
Announcing the Group’s full year trading figures for 2023 CEO, Brian Donaldson says this news is central to the repositioning of the company as a leading convenience retailer.
“Income from convenience retail and food and car washing, together with new mobility offerings, have grown significantly in importance for the Group,” he explains.
“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 10 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 €65m 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 12 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.
Donaldson said that despite continuous investment in its operations and the challenges of the last four years (including Covid, 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.
The 2023 Group turnover was €756m , with cost of fuel down this represented a decrease of €120m on 2022 (€876m). Group profit after tax was €27.5 m (€37.8m in 2022, which included a one-off gain from the sale of a valuable property in Dublin).
“This has been a very big year for the company with acquisitions and redevelopments dominating our growth strategy,” says 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.”
Donaldson says that despite intense competition in the retail convenience market, 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.
“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.”
Donaldson says he is looking ahead to 2025 with confidence amid further plans for growth as part of the 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.”
