Applegreen’s Strategic Growth and Investment in 2025
Applegreen’s Strategic Growth and Investment in 2025
In 2025, Applegreen delivered strong strategic growth across United States, Ireland and the UK as part of the Group’s previously announced €1 billion, five-year programme.
This continued investment reflects Applegreen’s long‑term focus on strengthening its service area estate, expanding operational capability and investing sustainably to meet the evolving needs of customers across its core markets.
United States Expansion
Applegreen continued to scale its presence in the United States, strengthening its portfolio of motorway and on‑highway service areas through redevelopment, acquisitions and new‑build projects.
Key milestones in 2025 included:
- The successful conclusion of our redevelopment of 27 Service Areas on the New York State Thruway, celebrated by the opening of the 27th Service Area at Modena.
- Increasing Applegreen’s stake in Project Service (the operator of 23 Service Areas in Connecticut) to 100% through a $74 million investment.
- Completion of the redevelopment of 21 on highway Service Areas in New Jersey.
- Commencement of our $70m construction programme for four, new to industry Service Areas in Denver, Colorado, supported by our construction partner Shames, a 100% women owned business.
Ireland Investments
In Ireland, Applegreen continued to invest in new service areas, expanded food offerings and job creation across the network.
Highlights from 2025 included:
- The opening of a new €15m Service Area in Dunshaughlin (M3), creating approximately 100 new jobs.
- Launching the first Chick-Fil-A restaurants on the island of Ireland, opening two locations at Lisburn South (M1) and Templepatrick (M2).
- Bringing the first Taco Bell to Ireland, and opening three locations at Dunshaughlin (M3), Ballincollig (N22), and Lusk (M1).
- Continued expansion of Applegreen’s proprietary food brands, including Crafted and Braeburn Coffee, alongside the rollout of M&S Food to 35 locations nationwide.
- Raising more than €2 million for charity partner Barretstown over the past three years, more than doubling the original fundraising target established at the start of the partnership.
UK Motorway Service Areas
Applegreen also made significant progress across its UK motorway service area portfolio, delivering landmark investments and securing long‑term certainty for key locations.
Key developments included:
- The opening of our new £55m Welcome Break Service Area near Rotherham (M1), representing Applegreen’s largest single‑site investment to date.
- Securing a 75-year lease extension on eight key Motorway Service Areas, providing long-term certainty across a core part of the estate.
- The acquisition of a new Service Area in Cornwall (A30) to our portfolio.
EV Charging Network Expansion & Sustainability
Sustainability remained central to Applegreen’s growth strategy in 2025, with significant investment in EV charging infrastructure across all three regions.
During the year, Applegreen:
- Invested €35m to deliver 254 new EV charging ports to 44 locations across all three regions.
- Expanded its total EV charging network to 1,567 EV charging ports across 129 locations.
- Entered three new US States, bringing our EV operations to six states in total – New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
A Long-Term Approach to Growth
Applegreen’s investments throughout 2025 underline a clear, long-term approach to growth, whilst keeping sustainability at the forefront of all our investments. We remain focused on meeting the evolving needs of customers across our three markets by constantly investing in our sites and maintaining our world class operational standards. We look forward to 2026 and delighting customers with more brands and hospitality that they love.
Learn more about Applegreen’s corporate strategy and sustainability priorities here.