Fuel and forecourt retailer Applegreen said it will open the country's first Taco Bell restaurant in September as part of a €15m investment in a new motorway service area at Junction 6 on the M3 in Dunshaughlin in Co Meath.
Applegreen is creating just over 100 new jobs at the new Dunshaughlin facility.
It will include an M&S Food shop-in-shop outlet, a new Braeburn Coffee Café, a Burger King restaurant, and Crafted - Applegreen's new deli offering - as well as a convenience store, a service station forecourt, and an initial eight ultra-Fast EV charging ports, with more chargers to come when further power is available at the site.
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 US over the next five years.
The Dunshaughlin facility is Applegreen's largest single investment project in Ireland this year.
Applegreen opened its first service station in Ballyfermot in Dublin in 1992 and now operates almost 200 locations in the Irish market. It typically invests over €50m every year in the Irish market on new store openings, upgrades and improvements.
The company 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.
Seamus Stapleton, Managing Director of Applegreen's Republic of Ireland business, said the company plans to open several additional Taco Bell restaurants at its Irish locations over the next five years.
"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," he added.
Matthew Johnson, New Market Lead for Taco Bell Europe, said that by partnering with Applegreen, Taco Bell is able to bring its 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.
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 $750m to build nine new service areas and upgrade and modernise the other nine locations. It also recently started work on a new $70m 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.
