FDBusiness.com

Greggs, the UK food-on-the-go retailer and manufacturer, with 2,050 retail outlets throughout the country, has reported a 13.5% increase in sales to £1.168 billion for 2019, as company-managed shop like-for-like sales grew by a record 9.2%. Underlying pre-tax profit, excluding exceptional items, grew by 27.2% to £114.2 million. Including exceptional items, pre-tax profit grew to £108.3 million.

Greggs is transitioning from a national bakery brand where the majority of shops were in high street locations to a leading food-on-the-go retailer operating across diversified locations and day-parts, with a modernised supply chain and technology infrastructure.

2019 was another year of major change and significant progress in Greggs’ investment programme to support shop growth by increasing logistics capacity and consolidating its manufacturing operations. Once complete, in 2021, this will provide capacity for around 2,500 shops and is already delivering improvements to product quality and competitiveness.

Roger Whiteside OBE, chief executive of Greggs, comments: “2019 was an exceptional year of progress for Greggs, during which we experienced a sustained increase in customer visits as increased awareness and appreciation of our brand gathered momentum. Our exceptional performance was founded on the changes that we have made across our multi-year strategic investment programme, which has delivered transformational change across the business and has now set us up for the next phase of growth.”

He elaborates: “We made a very strong start to 2020 in January, but in February saw a significant slowdown in sales growth as a result of the storms that have affected the UK. There is some uncertainty in the outlook, particularly given the potential impact of Coronavirus. This aside we expect to make year-on-year progress and will do so from a strong financial position, supporting our investment for further growth whilst also delivering good returns for all stakeholders.”