Applegreen has opened 17 new sites this year, chairman Daniel Kitchen told its AGM today (May 20), including one in the US.

In the UK it has opened four new petrol filling stations (PFS) and two service areas. This includes its latest motorway service area (MSA) in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, on the M1, seven miles south of Belfast.

It added 11 sites in the Republic of Ireland, and Kitchen added: “We have also opened a new PFS in the Long Island region in the North East of the USA and have made good progress developing our presence in that region.”

He continued: “The pipeline of service areas continues to develop in both Ireland and the UK. We have a significant number of prospects in both core markets at various stages of the planning process and are confident of further expanding our businesses in each territory.

“We are also pleased to announce an exciting addition to our suite of food offers in the form of Freshii, a Canadian concept, which provides fresh and nutritious meal choices that appeal to people on the go.

“The first Applegreen Freshii outlet will open in June in our Lusk MSA heading north on the M1 out of Dublin. We are continuing discussions with a number of other potential franchise partners.”