A NEW APPLEGREEN service station which is due to open in Naas, Co Kildare later this year will house Ireland’s first Popeyes drive-thru.

Popeyes is a fried chicken fast-food chain founded in New Orleans in 1972 and headquartered in Miami.

Its first location on the island of Ireland was at the Forestside Shopping Centre in Belfast, which opened in September 2024.

Meanwhile, its first location in the Republic opened in Blanchardstown Centre in June of this year.

Popeyes also opened a store at the Midway Applegreen station in Portlaoise, Co Laois in June and is due to open another location at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre soon.

The Popeyes outlet at the Applegreen Naas will be the chain’s first drive-thru in Ireland, and an additional drive-thru outlet will open at the site this winter.

The new Applegreen service area, which is costing some €15 million, will be located close to the Naas Ball at Junction 9 on the M7.

Applegreen said this site will create 150 new jobs in Naas.

As well as the first Popeyes drive-thru, the new Applegreen site will also include Taco Bell outlets, M&S Food, Crafted Kitchen & Deli, and an Applegreen forecourt and convenience store.

The site will also house eight ultra-fast EV chargers with a total of 16 charging points, with a separate truck stop for HGV fuelling.

Seamus Stapleton, managing director of Applegreen’s Republic of Ireland business, remarked that the company is “continuing to invest heavily in the Irish market, as we see significant long-term growth prospects for the Applegreen business”.

He said there are “several additional new sites in the pipeline” and that existing locations are also being upgraded.

Naas will be Applegreen’s second major new service station in Ireland in the past 12 months, as it opened a €15 million site at Junction 6 on the M3 in Dunshaughlin, Co Meath last September.

A spokesperson added that Applegreen is currently investing €1 billion to grow its operations in Ireland, the UK and the US.

It expanded to the UK in 2008, and then to the US in 2014.

Applegreen opened its first service station in Ballyfermot in Dublin in 1992 and now has almost 200 locations in the Irish market.

It also has over 435 locations across its global network and has more than 180 million customers annually, employing almost 18,000 people during its peak summer period.