Forecourt retailer Applegreen has announced that it is acquiring a network of seven sites from the Carsley Group, consisting of six service areas and one petrol filling station in the UK.
Applegreen will acquire the operation for £21 million, and the transaction is expected to be completed at the start of the fourth quarter 2017.
Growth Strategy
"This transaction will accelerate our strategy to establish a major service area presence in the UK market, complementing our strong position in Ireland and growing footprint in the United States," said Bob Etchingham, Applegreen CEO.
"The service area sites we are acquiring are well located on very busy roads with a number situated on the A1 which is a major arterial route. The assets being acquired provide a set of large and strategically important sites that can accelerate Applegreen's growth in this key marketplace."
Reach Their Potential
Commenting on the move, Shore Capital Stockbrokers said that 'with commercial agreements and planning considerations to be managed, we believe that it will be FY2020 before the full potential of the acquired units starts to be realised. We do firmly believe, however, that the acquisition will be value accretive not least mixing the potency of Applegreen's food-to-go proposition with the intense traffic densities of the A1; densities it should be said that are several times those witnessed by the group in Ireland.'
Shore Capital added that the Carsley sites will 'quite materially raise the profile and customer familiarity with the Applegreen brand whilst in the background the preparatory planning work continues in England with respect to potential Motorway Services Areas (MSAs) too'.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
