Applegreen is fuelling wild speculation of a Euromillions windfall

When it comes to Euromillions, it seems everyone’s a winner.

Applegreen is fuelling wild speculation of a Euromillions windfall

Well, not quite, but if you happened to be driving up the M1 yesterday you might have done a double-take as you saw petrol and diesel at the northbound Applegreen in Lusk in north Co Dublin were retailing at the pumps at just 88.5c.

Suffice to say, many motorists availed of what the store called its “flashback pricing” which it had introduced to celebrate selling the winning Euro millions Jackpot ticket worth €88.5m in last Tuesday’s draw.

The National Lottery announced at 6pm on Thursday that the winning ticket had been sold in the motorway shop and not in Cork, where there had been intense speculation focused on the Little Island and Glounthaune areas in the city’s hinterland.

According to Applegreen’s head of digital and design, Olwyn Horan, staff at the store only discovered a few hours ahead of the official announcement that it had sold the golden ticket, which secured the winner the third highest-ever Euromillions jackpot won in Ireland.

It was also the third jackpot-winning ticket sold in Ireland in the last year, following a €66m win in January last year at Eason in Fairgreen Shopping Centre, Carlow, and then in July the €23.8m shared by 22 Dublin Bus drivers.

Motorists filling up for 88.5 cent per litre petrol at the Lusk Applegreen Petrol Station, Dublin.
Motorists filling up for 88.5 cent per litre petrol at the Lusk Applegreen Petrol Station, Dublin.

“Through normal protocol, they will tell the retailer two hours before the announcement that they are coming to your site to do the balloons and posters,” Olwyn said.

It turns out the northbound Applegreen has had a few big successes previously. Someone won €250,000 on a scratch card bought there and, on another occasion, a ticket sold in-store won the buyer €37,000 in the National Lottery.

“Any win is a win,” Olywn said, but an €88.5m win is something else entirely.

“We were delighted. We get every type of customer in the store, from tourists to locals. There was a great buzz on site this morning.”

There was no information as to who the lucky buyer might be, however, not least because of the transient nature of the customers flying up and down one of the busiest roads in the country.

“We really have a large spectrum of customers,” Olwyn said. “The motorway sites are quite unique in that respect. It could be someone that went to the airport and got on a plane.”

That said, there is a suspicion the winner might be in the greater Dublin area, although given the way rumours have run wild this week, maybe it’s best to await official confirmation.

What is known is that the money cannot be collected until next week at the earliest, and the winner has 90 days to collect the jackpot.

Staff at Applegreen don’t know when the winning ticket was bought, nor can they say whether or not it was a quickpick selection.

It will be easier to discover how much fuel was sold between 9.30am yesterday, when prices dropped to 88.5c, and just before noon when, says Olwyn, “the well ran dry”.

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