Applegreen's shares fuelled by jump in full year earnings

The company achieved a 26% increase in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to €28.9m (£22.4m) in the year ended 31 December 2015.

Revenue rose 15% to €1.08bn, as the company grew its estate to 200 sites by year-end from 152 in 2014. Like-for-like food gross profit of 8.9% also gave revenues a lift.

During the period, the group increased food outlets by 29 and started selling food from Chopstix and Greggs.

“We delivered strong growth in 2015 over 2014 driven by the contribution from new sites across the Group's portfolio and the continued development of our food offerings,” the company said in a statement.

“There was considerable volatility in the oil price during the year with increases in the first half followed by decreases in the second half but, overall, the impact on the business was not significant.”

Shares closed up 1.65% to 356.80p.