Greggs to set up more shops in supermarkets and airports as sales grow

Bosses at the business, which has stores across the West Midlands, revealed today, in interim results, that sales had jumped 21.5 per cent to £844 million for the six months to July 1. This included a boost from higher demand from customers, price increases and new store openings.

The company also reported pre-tax profit of £80 million for the period, increasing from £55.8 million a year earlier.

"Greggs's strong performance continued in the first half of 2023 as we deliver on our strategic growth plan," said chief executive Roisin Currie.

"With consumers remaining under pressure, we continue to offer exceptional value, which is reflected in our performance and growing market share.

"In the period we continued to open further new shops, extended trading hours into the evening and saw increased participation in the Greggs App.

"Our ambitious plans for growth are on track and our amazing teams are committed to realising the opportunity to become a significantly larger, multi-channel business."

Greggs said it had increased its store numbers by 50 to 2,378 shops across the UK, after opening 94 sites but shutting 44 over the half year.

The company has outlined ambitions to grow its estate to “significantly more than 3,000 shops” over the long term.

It plans to accelerate its growth plans over the rest of the year and anticipates it will have had 150 net openings across the whole of 2023.

Ms Currie told the PA news agency: “Customers will see us continue to open more shops within supermarkets and have already opened a number within Tesco and Sainsbury’s shops. We have a really strong pipeline of new sites and will target more of those areas.”