Customers queued from 3am this morning, as Applegreen opened its new €15 million roadside service area close to the Naas Ball at Junction 9 on the M7.
The new site opened at 9.30am, but customers queued from early in the morning to avail of special opening day offers such as free chicken sandwiches for a year and free burrito meals for a year.
Applegreen has created 150 new jobs at the Naas site, which includes Popeyes and Taco Bell outlets, M&S Food, Crafted Kitchen & Deli, Braeburn Coffee, and an Applegreen forecourt and convenience store. The Popeyes outlet in Naas is the first Popeyes Drive-Thru in the Republic of Ireland.
Applegreen will open additional Drive-Thru brand at its new Naas site later this year.
The site will also have eight Applegreen Fast Charge ultra-fast EV chargers with a total of 16 charging points, and a separate truck stop for HGV fuelling.
“We’re thrilled to have opened our new service area in Naas, and we were delighted to welcome so many customers this morning,” said Seamus Stapleton, Managing Director of Applegreen’s Republic of Ireland business.
Three customers were rewarded with free Popeyes Chicken Sandwiches for a year, while three customers received free Taco Bell Burrito Meals for a year. Hundreds of customers also availed of free food from Popeyes, Taco Bell and Crafted Kitchen & Deli. There was free merchandise available for customers.
Popeyes provided entertainment for customers on the opening day, with a brass band in the morning and a DJ in the afternoon.
The new Naas site is the second major new services area that Applegreen has opened in Ireland in the past 12 months. Last September, it launched a new €15 million site at Junction 6 on the M3 in Dunshaughlin, Co Meath.
Over the past 12 months, Applegreen has introduced both Popeyes and Taco Bell to its Irish operations. Applegreen has also continued to expand the reach of its partnership with M&S Food, which is now available at 43 Applegreen locations, and is also growing both its Braeburn Coffee brand and its Crafted Kitchen & Deli offer.
Applegreen, which is one of Ireland’s best known retail brands, is currently investing €1 billion to grow its operations in Ireland, the UK and the United States. It is adding new locations in all of its markets through developing and acquiring new sites and it is also continuing to upgrade and improve its existing network.
Applegreen opened its first service station in Ballyfermot in Dublin in 1992 and now has almost 200 locations in the Irish market. Applegreen typically invests more than €30 million every year in the Irish market on a combination of new store openings, upgrades, and improvements.
Applegreen also has an extensive international business, with operations in Britain and the United States, and a total of more than 435 locations and more than 700 branded food offers across its global network.
Applegreen Group had a turnover of €3.8 billion in 2024 and employs almost 18,000 people worldwide during its peak summer period. Its outlets serve more than 180 million customers annually.
In the UK, Applegreen’s Welcome Break business operates a total of 62 sites, with 36 motorway service areas, and 31 hotels. In the US, Applegreen has 181 sites, and more than 300 branded food outlets.
