UK: Greggs reports good period of sales growth

Newcastle upon Tyne / UK. (gplc) Greggs PLC is with own words the leading retailer specialising in sandwiches, savouries and other baker-fresh food on the go in the United Kingdom. It has over 1.300 retail outlets throughout the UK, trading under the Greggs and Bakers Oven brands.

This days the bakery retailer says like-for-like sales for the first 16 weeks of the second half grew 5,9 percent, including a core volume growth of 1,8 percent. The company says the strong performance was assisted by favourable weather in August and September. The company feels that performance also improved from the impact of its integrated marketing campaign on TV.

The company based in Newcastle upon Tyne reports that for the 16-week period, 17 shops and 1.353 trading units were added to the company´s operations. For the year-to-date, 37 shops were opened and 20 shops closed.

The Bakers Oven brand says its operating profit for the second half to date stands above the comparable period last year. Greggs also notes that the restructuring of its business to create a unified, responsive, national Greggs brand is proceeding according to the plan.

The company reports that to date a total of 325.449 ordinary shares were purchased at an average price of 48,57 GBP and an aggregate cost of 15,90 GBP million.

Moving ahead, Michael Darrington, managing director of the group, says: «Our robust performance to date encourages us to believe that current and anticipated cost increases will be recoverable from the market place, with our selling price inflation continuing to run at around the current level of 4,5 percent».

Also encouraged by its progress to date, the company continues to believe that the current fiscal year will be a year of satisfactory progress for Greggs. For the full year, the company expects to add around 30 shops, higher than the earlier provided 20 to 25 shops (press release).