Applegreen plc, a major roadside retailer in Ireland, UK and the US, has posted its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2018.
Group revenue increased by 41% on FY 2017 to €2bn (42% on a constant currency basis), and gross profit increased by 55% on FY 2017 to €282.3m (57% on a constant currency basis).
Like-for-like constant currency growth in fuel revenue of 5.7% and fuel gross profit 6.8%, and like-for-like constant currency growth in non-fuel (food and store) revenue of 3.3% and non-fuel gross profit of 3.1%, respectively.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 46% to €58.1m in FY 2018 from €39.8m in FY 2017 (47% on a constant currency basis). Excluding the Welcome Break acquisition, Applegreen's adjusted EBITDA increased by 20% to €47.8m in 2018.
In October 2018, the group acquired a majority stake in Welcome Break, the UK's second largest Motorway Service Area operator. 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.
The integration of Welcome Break is proceeding well and existing Applegreen UK services areas have successfully transferred into the business.
During the period, Applegreen opened 22 new food outlets and added a further 200 through the acquisition of Welcome Break to bring our total to 482 food outlets in the Group
The group acquired 43 leasehold sites in Florida from CrossAmerica Partners LP, and seven sites in South Carolina from Getty Realty.
As a result of the above, the company grew the estate by 130 sites to 472 sites as at 31 December 2018 (31 December 2017: 342).