Applegreen will open Ireland’s first Taco Bell restaurant in September as part of a €15 million investment in a new motorway service area at Junction 6 on the M3 in Dunshaughlin, Co Meath.
Applegreen is creating just over 100 new jobs at the new Dunshaughlin facility, which will also include an M&S Food shop-in-shop outlet, a new Braeburn Coffee Café, a Burger King restaurant, and Crafted, Applegreen’s bespoke new deli offering.
The new service area will also have an Applegreen convenience store, a service station forecourt, and an initial 8 ultra-Fast EV charging ports, capable of speeds up to 400kW, with more chargers to come when further power is available at the site.
“When we announced our plan to bring Taco Bell to Ireland back in April, we were thrilled to see that our customers were just as excited as we were about bringing Taco Bell here,” said Seamus Stapleton, Managing Director of Applegreen’s Republic of Ireland business.
“We’re delighted to confirm today that Ireland’s first Taco Bell will be located at Applegreen’s new motorway service area on the M3 at Dunshaughlin and it will open in September. We plan to open several additional Taco Bell restaurants at our Irish locations over the next five years, and we will update consumers as soon as we have more news of future restaurants.”
Matthew Johnson, New Market Lead for Taco Bell Europe said that “by partnering with Applegreen, Taco Bell is able to bring our iconic menu and unique dining experience to Ireland and continue to grow as a global brand.” The partnership will Applegreen “will enhance Taco Bell’s presence in Europe, solidifying our regional footprint but also propelling our global growth ambitions,” he added.
The opening of the new Dunshaughlin motorway service area is part of Applegreen’s €1 billion plan to expand its business in Ireland, the UK and the United States over the next five years, according to Mr Stapleton. “This is a very significant addition to the Applegreen network in Ireland, as we’re opening a state-of-the-art new facility on the M3, which up until now didn’t have a dedicated services option.”
The Dunshaughlin facility is Applegreen’s largest single investment project in Ireland this year, but the company is also continuing to invest heavily right across its Irish business, Mr Stapleton said.
“We are continuing to expand our much-loved partnership with M&S Food, as well as growing our Braeburn coffee offer. Including Dunshaughlin, we have added six new Braeburn Cafés this year. Braeburn is proving very popular with our customers, and we plan to continue to invest further in this premium coffee brand.”
“The new Dunshaughlin service area will also see the launch our new Crafted Kitchen & Deli – offering good, honest Irish food, crafted just for you. Crafted will bring a range of new products and will also continue to offer customers deli favourites, such as chicken fillet rolls and breakfast rolls.”
The Dunshaughlin facility will be open 24/7, while the food outlets will be open daily from 6am until 11pm, with varying times for each specific food outlet. The site, which covers almost 10 acres, has amble parking, and will be the largest EV charging hub on the M3.
Applegreen is one of Ireland’s leading retail hospitality brands. It opened its first service station in Ballyfermot in Dublin in 1992 and now operates almost 200 locations in the Irish market. Applegreen typically invests more than €50 million every year in the Irish market on new store openings, upgrades, and improvements.
Applegreen has been rapidly expanding its partnership with M&S Food in recent years and now offers M&S products at 30 of its outlets. It plans to expand the partnership to 60 outlets over the medium term.
Applegreen also has a significant business overseas, with operations in Britain and the United States, and a total of more than 430 locations and more than 700 branded food offers across its global network. The Applegreen business currently employs about 16,000 people and has further plans for growth in all of its major markets. It had a turnover of almost €4 billion last year and serves about 180 million customers annually.
The company’s expansion plans are focused on acquiring and developing new sites in the markets in which it already operates, as well as upgrading and rebranding its existing locations.
In the US, Applegreen has 181 sites, and more than 300 branded food outlets. It was recently awarded a 35-year contract to operate 18 highway service plazas in Massachusetts.
Applegreen will invest $750 million to build nine new service areas and upgrade and modernise the other nine locations. It also recently started work on a new $70 million project to build four new highway service plazas in Colorado.
In the UK, Applegreen’s Welcome Break business operates 60 sites, including 36 motorway service areas, and 31 hotels.
Applegreen is also planning a major €85 million investment to further expand its EV charging networks in Ireland, the UK and the United States
