Applegreen petrol station, Enfield - geograph

Applegreen is an Irish company founded in 1992 that operates 620

petrol station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...

s in Ireland, the UK and the US. It is a major petrol retailer in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, and operates convenience stores and motorway service areas. Applegreen's headquarters are based in Park West Business Park in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland. In 2018, Applegreen purchased the majority of UK

motorway service area Motorway service areas in the United Kingdom and Ireland, also known as services or service stations, are rest areas where drivers can leave a motorway to refuel/recharge, rest, eat and drink, shop or stay in an on-site overnight hotel. The vas ...

operator

Welcome Break Welcome Break is a British motorway service station operator that operates 35 motorway service stations in the UK. It is the second-largest motorway service area operator behind Moto. It also operates hotels and motels. It is a subsidiary of ...

for €361.8m. In 2021, Applegreen acquired the United States toll road service area operations from

HMSHost HMSHost is an American highway and airport food-service company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Italian company Autogrill S.p.A. , Steve Johnson is the CEO of HMSHost. History The company's origins are in the Van Noy Railway News and Hotel Co ...

for $375 million.

Greenwashing controversies

In 2020, Applegreen announced an initiative to offset the emissions from its premium fuels, which has been labelled as a

greenwashing Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims ...

effort. While the campaign claimed to offset all the emissions from its fuels, an report from IrishEVs showed that this only included emissions created from cars and did not include emissions from extraction or refinement which typically account for up to 40% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from petrol and diesel. In February 2022, Applegreen created an education initiative, called Biodive, to educate students on climate change. It encouraged increased spending on fossil fuel products so that children could win rewards for their school, while the education material itself focused on low-impact biodiversity projects and overlooked the role of fossil fuels in worsening the

climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term describing global warming and climate change, and their impacts. The term and the alternative term ''climate emergency'' have been used to describe the threat of global warming to humanity (and their planet), and to u ...

Partnership with Marks & Spencer

In October 2022, Applegreen announced a partnership with

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

to sell M&S Food in its locations in Ireland. A new M&S Food “shop-in-shop” will initially be available in five Applegreen locations.

Creeslough explosion

On 7 October 2022, an explosion occurred at an Applegreen petrol station in the village of

Creeslough Creeslough ( , locally ; ga, An Craoslach ) is a village in County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the t ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

. The explosion killed ten people and left eight hospitalised. The site housed a petrol station, a supermarket, a post office, a hair dressing salon, and an apartment building. The source of the explosion has not yet been identified, but investigators suspect that it was caused by an accidental

gas leak A gas leak refers to a leak of natural gas or another gaseous product from a pipeline or other containment into any area where the gas should not be present. Gas leaks can be hazardous to health as well as the environment. Even a small leak into ...

. The Gardai (Irish police) are continuing to investigate the cause, but it is reportedly "strongly suspected" that a gas leak caused the explosion in the apartment block beside the petrol station. The explosion caused the region's largest number of civilian casualties in decades.

References

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* {{authority control Automotive fuel retailers Oil companies of the Republic of Ireland Energy companies established in 1992 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1992 Retail companies established in 1992 1992 establishments in Ireland Irish brands Filling stations in the United Kingdom Companies listed on Euronext Dublin