MOTOR FUELS supplier Maxol and retail franchise player BWG plan to invest €225 million in extending their existing partnership.
The companies say they intend spending €225 million on establishing Mace convenience stores at 55 Maxol service stations around the country. The resulting forecourt business, they say, will have annual sales in the region of €160 million and employ about 1,000 people.
Maxol is one of Ireland’s biggest motor and home heating oil retailers.
It has a network of 218 service stations and 21 distributors around the country.
The business is owned by the McMullan family and has a turnover in the region of €700 million a year. It is one of the oldest family-owned enterprises in Ireland.
BWG, a retail franchise operator, owns the Mace convenience store brand and has the rights to Spar – the largest single retail franchise in the Republic. The company’s franchisee network is made up of 900 stores.
Mace accounts for 240 of these. All the businesses are owner-managed. BWG’s wholesale division is made up of XL Retail, BWG Foodservice and 22 cash-and-carry outlets.
Maxol chief executive Tom Noonan said yesterday that the partnership offered the prospect of “further incremental growth” to both companies. BWG chief executive Leo Crawford added that it was significant that both were making the investment in a challenging economic environment.
