Applegreen enjoys a slice of profits

PASTIES from Greggs helped Applegreen cook up higher profits, but the petrol forecourt retailer warned of a rougher ride ahead.

Applegreen said deals with the High Street baker and noodle bar chain Chopstix fuelled a 42pc rise in underlying half-year profits to €10.7m (£7.8m).

The company, which floated on the AIM market in June, now has about 175 sites compared with 152 at the end of December last year. It employs about 2,600 people.

In the first half, it increased food outlets by 18 including the launch of Chopstix and Greggs. It also has partnerships with Burger King, Subway, Costa Coffee and Lavazza. Trading since the end of June was positive and it expects to achieve results in line with market forecasts.

Chief executive Bob Etchingham said: ‘The group has delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2015 reflecting the positive contribution from site openings in the latter part of 2014 and the increased contribution from food driven by our upgrade programme.’

But Etchingham said the company (down 10.38p to 351.5p) expected the rate of growth in the second half to fall short of the first six months. It said, however, that oil price falls had not significantly affected the business.

House broker Shore Capital also cautioned that Applegreen’s strong first half results came against a relatively weak fuel performance at the same time a year ago.

The broker’s analyst Darren Shirley said it expected the second half fuel gross profit growth rate to be materially lower than the first half’s 29pc.