IRELAND'S BIGGEST fuel retailer, Topaz, has teamed up with Australian investment group Macquarie in its bid to operate the first motorway service station areas here.
Four groups have been shortlisted by the National Roads Authority (NRA) to operate three pairs of motorway service areas.
These will be the first of their type in Ireland and they could be lucrative for the operators, given that they will include petrol forecourts, restaurants and possibly hotel facilities.
Two of the service stations will be located on the M1 motorway linking Dublin with Belfast, with one on the M4, which links the capital with the west of Ireland.
It is understood that the Macquarie Partnerships for Ireland consortium also includes Irish construction group John Sisk Son Holdings and Lagan Construction.
Topaz is backed by Dublin-based Ion Equity and acquired the Shell and Statoil service stations in Ireland.
These are currently being rebranded under the Topaz name as part of a €50 million investment.
Topaz has annual revenues of about €3.5 billion and operates more than 350 forecourts here, making it the biggest player in the Irish market.
Two of the other consortiums also have an involvement from existing Irish forecourt operators.
Superstop comprises Tedcastle Oil, which operates the Top brand; Petrogas, which runs the Applegreen chain of stations; Davy and Pierse Contracting.
West of Ireland operator John Sweeney, meanwhile, has lodged a bid through a group called Macon Consortium.
This comprises Sweeney's Black Shore Holdings company and Galway-based Oyster Motors, which also operates service stations and owns an advertising business.
The fourth group shortlisted is Service Area Solutions.
This comprises Cork-based Bowen Construction and Welcome Break Holdings which runs more than 20 motorway services stations and adjoining hotels in the UK.
Welcome Break is the second-biggest motorway service area group in Britain.
It is understood that the NRA will announce the winning bid before the end of this year.
The NRA advertised the service area contracts in May 2007 as a public private partnership (PPP).
Under the terms of the PPP, the winning group will be responsible for the design, construction, operation and financing of the service areas.
