Irish petrol forecourt firm Applegreen has reported a "positive start" to 2016, with higher trading volumes in all categories of the business, particularly food.

Applegreen chairman Daniel Kitchen said it was experiencing good growth in UK food sales amid a tough competitive landscape, and that the overall trading performance of the business for the first four months of the year has been "in line with the Board's expectations".

He said the company has opened three new petrol filling stations and two new service areas since December 2015.

The company has also opened a petrol filling station in the Long Island region of New York.

Mr Kitchen said the pipeline of service areas continues to develop in both Ireland and the UK.

“We have a significant number of prospects in both core markets at various stages of the planning process and are confident of further expanding our businesses in each territory.”