'By investing in our forecourts and stores and by using technology we are making the customer journey a faster and more rewarding experience'

The Maxol Group has announced its full year trading figures for 2023 with CEO, Brian Donaldson forecasting an even stronger performance for 2024 following an investment programme of more than £50 million during 2023/2024.

Brian Donaldson said that despite continuous investment in its operations and the challenges of the last four years (including Covid pandemic, inflation, Brexit and global geo-political unrest), The Group finished 2023 in a strong financial position, with no net bank debt and a substantial cash surplus.

2023 Group turnover was £625 million, with cost of fuel down this represented a decrease of £99million on 2022 £724million).

Group profit after tax was £22.7million (£31.2 million in 2022, which included a once-off gain from the sale of a valuable property in Dublin 4).

“More than 40% of Maxol’s gross profit now comes from non-fuel sales, which is central to the repositioning of the company as a leading convenience retailer,” said Brian Donaldson. “Income from convenience retail and food and car washing together with new mobility offerings have grown significantly in importance for The Group.

“Driving the repositioning of the business is a multi-million investment programme in our store network. The service station of 2024 is very different to that of 10 years ago and we are creating destination stores that offer a wide-range of eat-in and food-to-go options, where customers can have a meal or a coffee and access good Wi-Fi in comfortable surrounds.”

Maxol’s investment of more than £50million in the business since 2023 includes:

The acquisition of nine new sites, which are now operating under the Maxol brand in ROI.

The redevelopment / retrofit of three stores in NI and 12 stores in ROI with innovations such as new food concepts, upgraded car wash and pay at pump facilities, Wi-Fi, more parking and more choice of goods and services for customers.

In NI these include a £2.35 million investment to expand Maxol Braid River in Ballymena and deliver a new Maxol Recharge Ultra Rapid EV Hub - the second to be developed by Maxol and the second of its kind in Northern Ireland; the modernisation of Maxol Marino and a further £3.6 million to transform Maxol Belvoir on the Milltown Road in Belfast. The large site has been entirely reconfigured with a new forecourt and large new convenience store to create a blueprint for modern day roadside retail.

The redevelopment of two sites in NI and an additional three sites in ROI are nearing completion, including Maxol Fortwilliam in Belfast and Maxol Hilden in Lisburn where there will be an enhanced grocery and food to go offering.

Maxol’s first Ultra Rapid EV Hub in ROI in Newbridge launched this year, featuring six high speed 200kw chargers offering a 15 minute charge time.

Earlier this year, seven forecourt sites in Leinster were acquired from Naas Fuels Limited trading under the Circle K brand, the convenience retail stores of which operated under the Gala brand. The multi-million Euro investment has been supported by a £2.5 million retrofitting programme, which will be completed by end November and the rebranded Maxol stores offering the latest Maxol instore concepts with a Maxol Deli and ROSA Coffee stations.

Killeens in Wexford and Candy’s in Carnew, Wicklow also joined the Maxol network during the 2023/2024 period bringing to 252 the number of Maxol service stations on the island of Ireland, 132 of which are company owned (33 in NI / 89 in ROI) with 128 supplied under the Maxol brand and operating as independent dealer-owned sites (70 in NI / 58 in ROI).

“This has been a very big year for the company with acquisitions and redevelopments dominating our growth strategy,” said Brian. “We remain hugely ambitious and will go into 2025 looking to acquire more sites in good locations that present strong convenience retail opportunities. We are focused on sites where we know that non-fuel sales can yield over 67% of gross profit, in line with the repositioning of the Maxol business.”

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Maxol’s investment strategy includes the roll out of more ultra rapid EV hubs, but Brian explained that the slow uptake in EV adoption could impact the speed at which the business would develop its EV charging network.

“We launched the first dedicated Ultra Rapid EV hub in Kinnegar, Co Down in 2022 and followed this with Maxol Braid River, Ballymena in 2023. Earlier this year, we launched our first Ultra Rapid EV hub for the Republic of Ireland in Newbridge,” he continued.

“Sales of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Northern Ireland have been growing but we are monitoring sales closely as the move to EVs is lower than in other parts of the UK and Ireland. While we recognise that our sector has a key role to play in supporting EV adoption, we are faced with significant challenges. Planning delays and access to power capacity have been issues from day one, but now we are also concerned about developing our charging network too quickly, when the demand isn’t there. EV technology is evolving continuously, so we have to manage the pace of our own development to safeguard against becoming outdated too soon.

“The market is experiencing a chicken and egg conundrum and all stakeholders, particularly government, need to revisit ways in which drivers can be better incentivised to make the switch to electric. Notwithstanding, we will open our next Ultra Rapid EV hub in Rathnew and a number of other sites, where we can see the demand, are being considered."

Brian outlined how despite intense competition in the retail convenience market, with all retailers competing for a share of household income, Maxol has seen customers continue to shop locally, favouring convenience and with average transactional spend up.

“Shopping behaviours are value driven and we have seen this trend deepen this year, but not at the expense of quality or time,” said Brian. “Our customers value their time as much as they value quality so we have to ensure we deliver on both.

“By investing in our forecourts and stores and by using technology we are making the customer journey a faster and more rewarding experience – a frictionless one. So paying at the pump, self-service check-outs, more food options, and more parking are all contributing to attracting and importantly, retaining customers.”

2024 Highlights

Barista Bar coffee sales in NI and Maxol ROSA Coffee cup sales in ROI for 2024 are expected to hit 4.3 million, an increase of 3.3% on 2023.

Maxol’s car wash business continues to perform well, and an expected 665k vehicles will pass through a Maxol car wash in 2024 across the island of Ireland

Maxol Lubricants, a division of The Maxol Group, completed a packaging refresh of the existing line of products. All lubricants packaging now contains at least 30% and up to 50% recycled plastic, in line with the company’s wider efforts to reduce its environmental footprint across the business.

Maxol hvoPRO, a second-generation biofuel produced from renewable feedstocks that reduces carbon emissions by up to 90% vs regular diesel was introduced to eight forecourts across Maxol’s network including five in Northern Ireland, Mallusk, Townparks in Antrim, Eglinton in Derry, Ballymore in West Belfast and Tannaghmore on the A26 from Antrim to Ballymena with additional sites being added over the coming months. In 2024, Maxol transitioned 50% of our fleet to Maxol hvoPRO, achieving a reduction of circa 45% in annual carbon emissions.

Brian Donaldson believes that the opportunities for HVO in motoring, agriculture and aviation are enormous, and that government needs to reduce the duty on more sustainable fuels to help encourage and grow adoption.

Maxol won Best Sustainable Strategy for the Braid River Service Station in Ballymena at the recent national Forecourt Trader Awards. Green initiatives at the site include an Ultra Rapid EV Charging Hub, Co2 cooled glass door refrigeration, LED lighting,, solar panels, heat pump technology, solar-efficient glazing and a water reuse system. This approach is being introduced to all redevelopments with the objective of reducing energy costs and the carbon footprint of each site by 40%.

Brian Donaldson confirmed that he was looking ahead to 2025 with confidence amid further plans for growth as part of The Maxol Group’s five-year, £145 million investment strategy (2023-2027): “While we are growing at a steady and controlled pace we are fast becoming known for our high quality food and retail convenience offering. However, our long-established values as a family-owned business have not changed. These values guide our strategy, which is to develop and acquire sites that are located in local communities and that are operated by local people, employing local people.”

Operating as an Irish family business for more than 104 years, Maxol employs 85 people directly and more than 1,200 indirectly across the island of Ireland.