It was always going to be a risk. After growing his petrol forecourts business from a single filling station on the outskirts of Dublin in 1992, Bob Etchingham had his eye on a bigger prize. In August 2018, his listed company, Applegreen, spent €321m (£301.8m) on a 50.1% stake in rival Welcome Break, giving him control of a motorway services empire stretching across Ireland, the UK and North America.
The acquisition pushed Applegreen into almost half a billion pounds of debt, but with petrol takings rising and an increasing focus on higher-margin convenience and food sales, Etchingham was confident of paying it down.
However, Applegreen, which has 556 sites and partnerships with brands including Burger King, KFC and Starbucks, has been hammered by the Covid-19