Applegreen To Create 360 New Jobs
The Applegreen brand is constantly evolving and has brought many new initiatives to the forecourt market in recent years.
It pioneered the first Motorway Service Areas (MSA) in Ireland, launched the forecourt industry’s first loyalty card programme and more recently Applegreen has entered the dealer market which will allows independent retailers access to the Applegreen brand.
Applegreen is also expanding its operations further afield with the recent opening of two service stations in Long Island, New Jersey, USA.
At the official opening of Applegreen’s newest motorway service area, situated at Junction 14 on the M11 in Wicklow, Applegreen announced the creation of 360 new full-time jobs in Ireland.
The jobs will be created through the development of six new Service Areas in 2014 and 2015 at a total investment by the company of €30 million.
In addition to the new full-time jobs, more than 250 construction workers will be contracted per site during the construction phase. Once opened, there will be 60 full-time positions per service area.
The Wicklow Service Area is the first of the new Applegreen sites to open for business with additional sites in Birdhill, Co Tipperary, Swords, Co Dublin and Lemybrien, Co Waterford, which is currently under construction.
The new super service stations are located on major inter-urban routes which will provide much needed services and facilities to motorists travelling on their daily commute.
Wicklow Service Area is located on the M11 at Junction 14, which is also known as the ‘Coyne’s Cross’ Junction.
It will be accessible by an average of 35,000 motorists per day. The travelling public from Wexford to Dublin or Dublin to Wexford can now for the first time avail of the full range of popular services Applegreen already offers from more than 100 other sites across its service station network in Ireland, UK and the US.
The privately funded investment is the seventh MSA in the Applegreen network with four based on the M1 on both sides at Lusk and Castlebellingham and two on the M4 at Enfield.
The new motorway service station facilities include a convenience store, car and HGV fuelling pumps, ESB electric car charge points, Burger King Restaurant and drive-through, Subway sandwich bar, Applegreen’s own ‘Bakewell Kitchen’ café, Costa Coffee, in and outdoor children’s play areas, indoor and outdoor seating, toilets and washroom facilities, car, bus and HGV parking.
Joe Barrett, chief operations officer for Applegreen said: “I am delighted to announce that Applegreen has created 60 new jobs in Wicklow at our new Motorway Service Station, Coyne’s Cross. This is a key part of our expansion plans in Ireland and it will be followed by additional openings at Birdhill, Swords and Lemybrien later in the year creating a total number of 360 new jobs in Ireland across 2014 and in 2015.”
Joe added: “In addition to our direct employees we are delighted to be able to create economic activity in the construction sector and with other Irish suppliers. The motorway network in Ireland has significantly improved in recent years, but there is still a shortage of service areas on key routes and we hope to help improve this.”
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