Applegreen has revealed sales up 16% to €517m in its first set of results since its flotation in June.

For the six months ended June 30 it also pushed up EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) up 42% to €10.7m.

During the period it also added 23 sites across its estate in the UK and Ireland and increased food outlets by 18, including the launch of two new food offers, Chopstix noodle bars and Greggs.

Towards the end of the period the flotation raised €65.2m after expenses.

Commenting on the results, CEO Bob Etchingham said: “We are very pleased to announce our first interim results as a public company. The group has delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2015 reflecting the positive contribution from site openings in the latter part of 2014 and the increased contribution from food driven by our upgrade programme.

“Growth was evenly spread across both the Republic of Ireland and the UK, with the latter’s contribution also benefiting from the strength of sterling against the euro during this period.

“We continued to expand our business in the six months adding two service area sites and three petrol filling stations in the Republic of Ireland, as well as expanding our network of dealer sites by 11. In the UK our site numbers increased by five including the first motorway service area in Northern Ireland.”

He added: “Trading since the end of June has been positive and while we expect the rate of growth in H2 to be lower than H1, we are on track to deliver results in line with market expectations.”

Applegreen’s UK operation, known before its renaming as Petrogas Group UK, was ranked fifth in the Forecourt Trader Top 50 Indies with 54 sites.