Bakery chain Greggs says sales increased 23% to £1.51bn last year on the back of expansion and a return of shoppers and workers to high streets.
The Newcastle-based plc, which opened 186 new shops in 2022, said like-for-like sales in company-managed shops were 17.8% higher than 2021. And despite the impact of cold weather and rail strikes in the run up to Christmas, fourth quarter receipts in company-managed shops grew by 18.2% when compared with the same period the year before when high streets suffered the disruption of the Omicron Covid variant.
Greggs said its customers were "clearly" seeing cost-of-living pressures but that its range of food-on-the-go products remained attractive. The healthy sales came despite Greggs saying shoppers were "clearly" experiencing cost-of-living pressures and the chain making several price increases to some of its key products during the year, including to the sausage roll which had started 2022 at £1 and now costs £1.20.
