Moto raises prices to battle inflation as motorway service station giant’s owners mull £2bn sale

Motorway service station giant Moto upped its prices to help battle the rise in costs during its latest financial year as its owners weigh up putting the company up for sale for £2bn.

The Bedfordshire-headquartered business, which operates 69 sites at 52 locations across the country, has reported a turnover of £1.067bn for the year to December 27, 2023, up from £1.058bn.

According to newly-filed accounts with Companies House, Moto’s pre-tax profit dipped from £38.1m to £36.5m over the same period.

CVC Capital Partners and the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which have jointly owned Moto since 2015, received interim dividends of £24.8m and £34.8m in May and December 2023 after £46m was paid in 2022.

The results come after reports emerged in May that Moto’s owners are preparing to put the company up for sale for more than £2bn.

Moto’s turnover from fuel decreased from £629.8m to £585.2m but rose from £404.7m to £456.1m for non-fuel turnover.

During the year the average number of people employed by Moto increased from 5,324 to 5,694.

Moto raises prices to combat rise in costs

A statement signed off by the board said: “The group is well placed to benefit from recovery and growth in the UK economy and remains focused on long term growth.

“The performance of the group was impacted by significant inflationary pressures; primarily across utilities, cost of goods sold and labour.

“To the extent possible prices have subsequently been updated to reduce any impact on the financial performance.”

It added: “The directors consider the financial position of the group to be in line with expectations given the structure of the group and its financial performance.

“Management are pleased with the progress made against the strategic priorities to ‘transform the UK rest stop experience’.

“The business has recovered well post-Covid and responded robustly in a highly inflationary market.

“Investment will continue in the transformation strategy, rolling out new brands and materially changing the landscape of EV charging across the UK’s strategic road network and improving our customer experience and colleague efficiency via the investment in new technology infrastructure.”