Fuel retailer MOL Group has said that its Consumer Services division, which includes its Fresh Corner forecourt retail business, reported a 19% increase in full-year EBITDA.
As of the end of 2021, the group now operates 1,069 Fresh Corner sites across its estate, up from 955 at the close of the previous year.
Recent Acquisitions
In addition, over the course of the past year, it has boosted its store count through a number of acquisitions as part of its Shape Tomorrow 2030+ Strategy.
It added 16 service stations in Slovakia and 120 OMV service stations in Slovenia to its portfolio.
This acquisition process has continued into the first quarter of this year, with the recent acquisition of 417 Lotos branded service stations in Poland, the group said.
At group level, EBITDA came in at $3.53 billion (€3.10 billion), which the group said was an all-time high, despite a 'very volatile external environment' Fourth-quarter EBITDA stood at $947 million.
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'Maximise The Benefits'
“Due to MOL’s integrated business model and the good internal performance we were able to maximise the benefits from the external environment, allowing us to fund our transformational investments," commented Zsolt Hernádi, chairman and CEO of MOL Group.
"Despite the operational challenges we continued our strategic transformational journey that we accelerated with the Shape Tomorrow 2030+ Strategy update one year ago. The construction of the new polyol complex proceeded according to plan and we also took inorganic steps to strengthen our Consumer Services portfolio in Poland and Slovenia."
MOL Group expects that the environment in which it operates is likely to 'remain volatile and unpredictable over the coming year, and forecasts full-year EBITDA generation of around £2.8 billion (€2.46 billion).
The group is also expecting to make further investment towards its goal of becoming net carbon neutral by 2050.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
