Greggs reveals how customers' eating habits are changing as sales jump at bakery

People are ditching more pricey sit-in options at cafes and grabbing a cut-price sausage roll or vegetable bake instead.

The bakery has revealed its sales have jumped by 15 per cent over the past three months with cash-conscious consumers eating on the go rather than go to a cafe for lunch or picking a more expensive sandwich from another store.

Greggs also continues to cash-in on its breakfast menu as it continues to reinvent itself as an alternative to fast-food outlets, offering bacon rolls, pastries and a wide range of coffees.

The bakery chain said sales slowed during August as people ditched the staycations that had been fuelled by the pandemic, but that momentum returned in September.

It said the sales increase comes “in an environment where cost pressures are significant and our outstanding value-for-money positioning is ever-more important to consumers”.

Greggs also noted that its sales growth dipped by about one per cent as a result of closing its shops for the Queen’s funeral on September 19.

Cost inflation for the year is expected to remain at its previous estimations of nine per cent on last year as the retailer faces surging costs of raw materials, production, and energy.

The chain, which has recently launched its new autumn menu including the pumpkin spice latte and the chicken and stuffing baguette, previously announced that customers would see 5p or 10p increases on some items as it was forced to raise prices for the second time this year.

But Greggs said it has fixed prices with suppliers for a good level of its future food and energy costs.

The group has driven forward its expansion plans and is set to have opened 150 new stores for the year as a whole, including a number in the West Midlands. It has also created two 'drive through' shops in Amesbury and Durham and is looking for opportunities to expand the concept in other regions including the Midlands.

It has also opened an in-store cafe in Birmingham’s Primark and sells a range of Greggs-branded fashion products at Primark stores, including t-shirts and socks and plastic clogs, which have sold out

Despite the “considerable uncertainty” across the wider economy, Greggs made no changes to its full-year profit guidance.