Applegreen plc has announced group revenue increased by 41% to €2.0bn for the year ended 31 December 2018.
Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) increased by 46% to €58.1m in 2018, compared with €39.8m in 2017. Excluding the Welcome Break acquisition, Applegreen’s adjusted EBITDA increased by 20% to €47.8m in 2018.
During 2018, in addition to the acquisition of Welcome Break, which included 34 motorway service area sites, three trunk road service area sites Applegreen also bought two US groups totalling 50 sites, and grew the estate by 130 sites to 472 sites as at 31 December 2018.
It also opened 22 new food outlets in the year, and added a further 200 through the acquisition of Welcome Break, to bring its total to 482 food outlets.
Commenting on the results, CEO Bob Etchingham said: “We are delighted to announce another strong set of results for Applegreen. 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.
“The acquisition of the second largest UK Motorway Service Area operator, Welcome Break, is transformational for our business. It gives us an excellent platform to develop our Service Area business in the UK market.
“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. 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.
“Trading conditions remain generally good despite uncertainty caused by macro events. We anticipate another year of robust growth for the business. Our primary focus will be on the integration of Welcome Break and further reducing leverage but we will also continue to evaluate new opportunities to further expand the business in the future.”
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