Member Article

Pretax profits jump to over £25m as Greggs reveals strong first half

Bakery giant Greggs has reported a strong first half of the year, continuing to show growth in both average transaction value and customer visits.

The Newcastle-headquartered food-on-the-go retailer, which boasts almost 1,700 retail outlets throughout the country, saw total sales increase 6.4% to £398m, up from £374m last year.

In addition, pretax profit rose to £25.6m for the period, up from £16.9m. Moreover, Greggs revealed that own shop like-for-like sales were up 5.9%, again surpassing last year’s figure of a 3.2% rise.

Greggs’ sales initiatives were chiefly responsible for the impressive growth, with the baker extending its ‘Balanced Choice’ range and further growing its breakfast offering.

The company also revealed that its widespread shop refurbishment initiative is progressing well, 118 refits and 12 café conversions have now been completed nationwide. During the period, Greggs closed 30 shops although opened 44 new outlets.

Roger Whiteside, Chief Executive, said: “We have had a strong first half with good growth in sales reflecting improvements in our products and the reaction to our shop investment programme.

“Our offer of great tasting food-on-the-go is being well received by the consumer in market conditions that have remained favourable. In particular we have seen significant growth in breakfast sales as well as from the extension of our “Balanced Choice” range of sandwiches and flatbreads with fewer than 400 calories.

“With the shop refurbishment programme continuing to progress well and new additions to the product range including pizza slices, we are confident of delivering a year of good growth slightly ahead of our previous expectations.”

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