Greggs sales soar after trade continues ‘very strongly’

The convenience food retailer reported that total sales were up 12.4% for the 13 weeks to September 28, 2019, while like-for-like sales were up 7.4%.

Since the beginning of the year, Greggs said that total sales have soared 13.9%, while like-for-like sales across its network of 2,000 stores increased 9.4%.

In the year to date, Greggs has opened 56 net new stores, including the chain’s 2,000th outlet in August.

It said it had also “made good progress” with the construction of its southern distribution centre at Amesbury in Wiltshire.

In terms of its outlook, Greggs said it had been “preparing for the potential impact of the UK’s departure from the European Union” by stockpiling key ingredients.

“As previously disclosed, we are preparing for the potential impact of the UK’s departure from the European Union by building stocks of key ingredients and equipment that could be affected by disruption to the flow of goods into the UK.

“Overall input cost inflation is in line with our previous guidance to the end of the year, with pressures on both labour and food input costs.”

Greggs said that “operational cost control has been good” and that its financial expectations for the rest of the financial year “remain unchanged”.

“Operational cost control has been good and we are progressing selective investments in the strategic initiatives that we expect to deliver an even stronger customer proposition and further growth in the years ahead.

“We continue to expect that year-on-year sales growth in the balance of the year will reflect the strengthening comparatives seen in 2018, and our expectations for the full-year outturn remain unchanged.”