Topaz €8m motorway service stations to create 100 jobs in Carlow and Laois

Fuel and convenience retailer Topaz is to create 100 new jobs in Carlow and Laois as part of an €8 million investment in new motorway service stations.

The new service stations will be located at junction 3 on the Dublin-Cork motorway (M8) near Ballacolla, Co Laois, and at junction 5 on the Dublin-Waterford motorway (M9) in Co Carlow.

Work on the 600sq m site in Co Laois will begin in January and is expected to be completed by July 2014.

A planning application has been submitted for the Carlow site and construction there is expected to start next summer.

Some 200 people will be employed during the construction phase of both sites, while 100 full time jobs would be created once the sites are operational, Topaz said.

"We have an excellent motorway network in Ireland now but there is a shortage of service areas and we want to address that. We see both these sites as being a vital rest and refuelling stops for motorists travelling between Dublin and Cork and Dublin and Waterford," Paul Candon of Topaz said. He said an estimated 10,000 motorists use both motorways every day.

The Topaz group is owned by a number of investors including Denis O’Brien and Neil O’Leary.

The latest filed accounts for Topaz Energy Group Ltd show it had a turnover of €2.95 billion in the year to the end of March 2012. Pre-tax losses were €17.29 million.

In his review, group chief executive John Williamson said that during the year the group made progress on consolidating its position as Ireland’s number one supplier and marketer of liquid fuel.

Shareholders’ deficit at year’s end was €34.4 million and the group is heavily indebted to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (now in liquidation) and Bank of Ireland.

Notes to the accounts say that since year end the group negotiated a revised repayment schedule with its principal lenders.

During the year the group employed an average of 1,398 employees, at a cost of €38.9 million.