Greggs hails year of good progress
Greggs has seen its fourth quarter total sales rise by 7.7% as it benefited from high demand for seasonal Christmas food items.
However, like-for-like sales growth in company-managed shops was lower at 2.5% due to the impact of more subdued High Street footfall in the second half of the year.
Despite this, Greggs said it maintained its market share of visits as it continued to attract existing and new customers through a combination of menu development, marketing and an extension into new channels and dayparts.
Seasonal lines in high demand in the fourth quarter included items such as festive bakes and flatbreads, sweet mince pies and Christmas cake slices.
Meanwhile, pizzas continued to perform well both in the day and into the evening, with sales of pizza boxes and pizza bundle deals continuing to grow.
The results meant that Greggs’ full year total sales increased by 11.3% to £2.014 billion with like-for-like sales in company-managed shops 5.5% higher than in 2023.
Greggs opened a record 226 new shops in the year and expects to launch between 140 and 150 net new shops in 2025, including 50 relocations,
Roisin Currie, Greggs chief executive, said: “2024 was another year of good progress by Greggs, with a record number of new shops opened and the £2 billion sales milestone surpassed. I’m proud of our teams who, day in and day out, do such a fantastic job for our customers.
“We enter 2025 with a strong pipeline of new shop opportunities, and we continue to broaden our menu and enhance our digital capabilities, whilst also developing our supply chain capacity to deliver our growth strategy.
“Whilst lower consumer confidence continues to impact High Street footfall and expenditure, our value-for-money offer and the quality of our freshly-prepared food and drink position us well to meet the headwinds we expect to see in the year ahead, and we remain confident in the significant long-term opportunity for growth.”
