Retail

Greggs reports best sales growth yet


UK bakery chain Greggs reported its best sales growth to date as it looks to diversify beyond its blockbuster vegan sausage roll, which has boosted sales and prompted the food retailer to upgrade its profit forecasts three times this year.

In the 26 weeks to the end of June, Greggs reported total sales up 14.7 per cent to £546m, compared with an increase of 5.2 per cent in the same period last year. Pre-tax profits increased 52 per cent in the first half of the year to £36.7m.

The company also announced a special dividend of 35p.

The 80-year-old food retailer, which started out as a van taking pies and bread to miners around Newcastle upon Tyne, has defied high street gloom by moving beyond its traditional baked offerings and into hot on-the-go food and healthier goods to cater to the increasingly diverse tastes of modern consumers.

It has expanded its vegan range and added gluten-free lines as well as experimenting with an evening offering of pizza.

As a result Greggs has managed to grow its retail estate to almost 2,000 shops and said that it expects to open 100 more — net of closures — for the year as a whole.

Shares in Greggs are up 88 per cent since the beginning of January.

Roger Whiteside, chief executive, said that trading was strong although he expected like-for-like growth to slow as Greggs faced stronger comparatives from the second half of 2018.

“Given the strength of our year to date and the outlook, we have decided to increase investment in strategic initiatives in the second half of the year to help to deliver an even stronger customer proposition and further growth in the years ahead,” he said.

But he warned that Brexit continued to “present significant uncertainties” and that the bakery chain was building supplies of key ingredients in order to mitigate potential supply chain and exchange rate pressures.



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