euro garages

‘Landmark period’ for Euro Garages

The owner of Euro Garages, Intervias Group, has reported revenues for the 17 months to 31 December 2016 up 182% to €3.16bn (£2.83bn).

Euro Garages accounted for the main bulk of the record revenues, with income of €2.9bn - up 163% from the 12 months to 31 July 2015.

Co-chief executive Mohsin Issa said the last 17 months had been a “landmark period” for the forecourt operator.

During the period, Euro Garages doubled in size as it bought the Esso South and Shell Strawberry estates.

It also signed partnership deals with Starbucks, Subway, Greggs, Burger King, and Spar, as well as entering a franchise arrangement with Sainsbury’s.

The latest accounts also revealed the group paid €18m when it bought all the Little Chef sites from Kuwaiti-owned firm Kout Food Group in February 2017.

A franchise agreement with KFC signed in the first quarter of 2017 had “exceeded expectations”, the group said, with “significant potential for the future rollout of further sites”.

Intervias was formed in 2016 following a £1.3bn merger deal with Euro Garages and the TDR Capital-owned European Forecourt Retail (EFR) Group to create one of Europe’s largest retail forecourt specialists.

The accounts showed the company made a loss of €17m before tax, compared with a profit of €42m in the previous year.

The loss was partly caused by TDR Capital’s purchase of EFR in November 2016, and included transaction costs and the write-off of unamortised debt on refinancing.

Net debt rose 115% to €1.56bn as the company increased its borrowing to €1.6bn.

EBITDA was up more than 100% to €183m.

Over the period the group increased its portfolio to 1,520 sites, compared with 240 the previous year.