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{{Infobox
|colour = #81BB29
|image = Lusk welcome sign.jpg
|locations = 8 motorway service areas
|introduced = 
|hqaddress = Applegreen plc.{{newline}}17 Joyce Way{{newline}}Parkwest Business Park{{newline}}Dublin 12{{newline}}Ireland 
|associated = 
|telephone = +353 1 512 4800
|rating = Applegreen
|website = applegreenstores.com
|facebook = goapplegreen
|twitter = goapplegreen
|country = both
}}

'''Applegreen''' is both the owner of the UK's [[Welcome Break]] and a fuel and motorway brand in its own right in Ireland. These two points cross over in Northern Ireland, where there are Applegreen-branded motorway service areas operated by Welcome Break.

They were established as '''Petrogas Ltd'''. Their smallest sites use the brand '''Low Fuel Prices Always''', which is also a slogan and ethos promoted by Applegreen. Their larger forecourts have shops filled with food options, a style they tried to introduce across Britain.

===Irish Roots===
Applegreen started in 1992 as a company running petrol stations under the brand name of its supplier, but after noticing the profit margin on fuel was dropping, in 2005 they decided to focus on the facilities available inside the forecourt store. They introduced the Applegreen brand for these new stores.

Like many fuel brands, Applegreen believe that selling fuel on its own is no longer a profitable business, and instead it is a way to get people to visit their shopping and catering facilities - especially in Ireland where supermarkets have been unable to conquer the fuel market. In particular, Applegreen are now focusing on ensuring that their sites are places that owners of electric vehicles might want to visit while recharging.

On 24 July 2020 they celebrated their birthday with a number of promotions, including selling fuel at Irish motorway sites for {{future inflation|24.7c|2020}} per litre. They continue to use this date ("24/07"), to hold a number of sales events themed around their opening hours at major sites ("24/7").

====Brand Names====
[[File:Dodwells 2023.jpg|250px|thumb|right|alt=Petrol station with a Greggs on the left and a sign across the top saying 'Low Fuel Prices Always'.|The 'Low Fuel Prices Always' name is used for Applegreen's smaller sites.]]
Applegreen franchises in Ireland include [[Burger King]], [[Subway]] and [[Costa]]. Previously, [[Wimpy]] was a common sight. Their UK sites also used [[Greggs]].

Their main restaurant used to be called aCafé, with a section called Food to Go. The former became [[The Bakewell]] and the latter generally became [[Freshii]] in 2017. Freshii was withdrawn in 2023, and while their largest sites did have [[Costa]]-branded coffee shops, these became [[Lavazza]] the same year. They began slowly launching their premium coffee brand, [[Braeburn Coffee]], in October 2020. A partnership with [[M&S Food]] is slowing being rolled out, meaning Applegreen's novelty Irish gifts are now being replaced by a larger food-to-go range.

Applegreen introduced [[Taco Bell]] to Ireland in 2025, following a successful roll-out with Welcome Break in the UK. They are set to launch a new deli brand, 'Crafted', in {{current|September 2025}}.

====SuperStop====
The optimistically-titled SuperStop is a consortium of Applegreen, TOP Oil and (for the duration of construction) Pierse Contracting, with Applegreen being the most publicly active partner but the ownership split evenly between all three. SuperStop won the contract to design, build, finance, maintain and operate Ireland's first six motorway services from 2010 until at least 2035. After the first three of those opened, the rest were postponed indefinitely.

Applegreen objected to the decision to award the next three services to [[Topaz]] in 2015, instead of their own consortium. Their bid was named SuperStop 2.

SuperStop service areas follow the peculiar Irish design of having the filling station before the car park.

====Racing The State====
Before Ireland had any motorway service areas, Applegreen built a large forecourt near Balbriggan at M1 J5, close to where [[Lusk|Lusk services]] was about to be built. They claimed Balbriggan was Ireland's first motorway service area, although it wasn't and still isn't signposted as such.

Since then, Applegreen have continued to express their frustration at the Irish government's slow roll-out of motorway service areas. Applegreen went on to build [[Wicklow]] faster than the official [[Gorey|Gorey services]], and are pursuing planning permission for their own [[Dunshaughlin|Dunshaughlin services]] much faster than the official one.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland now recognises Applegreen's own motorway service areas as being as good as the ones designed by the government (excluding Balbriggan which continues to be ignored), so Applegreen's strategy has influenced how the government focuses its service station planning.

===International Expansion===
[[File:Wicklow seating area.jpg|250px|thumb|right|alt=A seating area with a restaurant counter on the right.|Inside an Applegreen motorway service area.]]
Applegreen has had its sights on forecourts beyond Ireland, and in July 2017 they purchased 34 filling stations in South Carolina, USA.

Having run several local petrol stations in the UK since 2008, in August 2017 Applegreen purchased seven forecourts in the UK from the Carsley Group for £21million (worth around £{{inflation|26.52413436|extension=million}}). These were mostly on the [[A1]] and marked a major opportunity for Applegreen to start appearing along major roads in England, introducing their food-to-go range and raising their profile before any potential motorway services open.

Despite having planned several large motorway services in the UK, these were unsuccessful. In August 2018, Applegreen changed their strategy by purchasing 55% of the existing UK motorway service area operator [[Welcome Break]]. Applegreen claimed that they would be responsible for the brand's overall "strategy and operations", while Welcome Break's management would take responsibility for Applegreen's existing UK locations. The change took effect in January 2019, with Applegreen's UK motorway and major A-road service areas re-branded a few years later.

Meanwhile, Welcome Break phased out its dependence on [[Shell]] branding for its forecourts, before only selling Applegreen's "fuel good" brand of fuel instead. They use a slightly modified slogan: "lowering fuel prices" instead of "low fuel prices", which was quickly dropped. Planning documents for some sites were spotted with Dublin addresses on them, while a number of new Welcome Break projects came forward with a building layout very similar to that used by Applegreen, where the forecourt sales shop sells all the food.

Applegreen's strategy changed slightly in 2021, when they began looking for a seller for their smaller UK forecourts. More of the larger sites and ones on main roads transferred to Welcome Break management, while Welcome Break was transformed into a fuel brand of its own, like Applegreen. Applegreen's [[BP]]-branded sites then transferred to either the Applegreen or Welcome Break fuel brands in April 2023.

Other curious changes include Welcome Break opening [[Greggs]] stores (Greggs being an established Applegreen partner), and Applegreen ending their relationship with Costa Coffee in 2023 (Welcome Break being long-time Starbucks operators). The partnership between Applegreen in Ireland and [[M&S Food]] is unusual because Welcome Break are an established partner of their rival, [[Waitrose]], but Waitrose don't trade in Ireland and Moto have exclusive access to the M&S brand in England. Welcome Break have since opened Waitrose stores at some of the English Applegreen sites they operate, and M&S stores at their Northern Irish Applegreen sites.

Their remaining forecourts in England, Scotland and Wales were sold to [[EG On The Move]] in January 2025.

==Applegreen Services==
Applegreen operated both of Northern Ireland's major motorway service areas, though these are now managed by Welcome Break with Applegreen branding:

* [[Lisburn]] (M1 Northern Ireland)
* [[Templepatrick]] (M2 Northern Ireland) ''(northbound only)''

===Ireland (Republic Of.)===
In a 2018 statement, Applegreen claimed to operate 23 trunk road service areas in Ireland. We only count ones with official signposting, of which there was only one. Their figure included petrol stations in urban areas which may not even be trunk roads. They added that there were three more motorway sites. More have since opened.

* [[Birdhill]] (M7)
* [[Dunshaughlin]] (M3)
* [[Paulstown]] (M9)
* [[Rathcoole]] (N7) ''(westbound only)''
* [[Wicklow]] (M11)

====SuperStop Services====
SuperStop (branded as Applegreen) run the following services in Ireland: {{viewonamap|name=SuperStop}}

* [[Castlebellingham]] (M1)
* [[Enfield]] (M4)
* [[Lusk]] (M1)

===UK Mainland===
In the same 2018 statement, Applegreen claimed to operate eight trunk road service areas in the UK. This matched our list of their signposted A-road service areas (which they now have more of). All of these except Nuneaton are to become Welcome Break-managed.

* [[Cromwell]] (A1) ''(northbound only)''
* [[Darrington|Darrington (branded store only)]] (A1) ''(southbound only)''
* [[Kates Cabin|Kate's Cabin]] (A1) ''(northbound only)''
* [[North Muskham]] (A1) ''(southbound only)''
* [[Nuneaton]] (A444) ''(fuel only)''
* [[Spalding]] (A16)
* [[Spaldwick]] (A14) ''(westbound only)''
* [[Whitley]] (A49)
* [[Wyboston]] (A1) ''(southbound only)''

For a list of Welcome Break services, see [[List of Welcome Break services]].

===Planned Services===
Applegreen is seeking to build the following major service areas:

* [[Dunshaughlin]] (M3 Ireland)

===Unbuilt Services===
The following motorway services were planned by Applegreen but were never built:

* [[Kempshott|Basingstoke]] (M3 England)
* [[Ennis#Planning History|Dromoland]] (M18 Ireland)
* [[Solihull|Shirley]] (M42 England)

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[[Category:Brands]][[Category:Operators]][[Category:Irish Brands]][[Category:Applegreen]]
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Whitley (view source)
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