Greggs has promised fans a new range of flatbreads and a sweet chilli chicken noodle salad box in its shops in 2023.
The Newcastle-based takeaway food chain said it was developing the new flatbreads - including a shawarma chicken version - and hoped to launch them before the summer while the new noodle box was likely to appear by May. Speaking to ChronicleLive, Greggs boss Roisin Currie said staff had been able to try the flatbreads recently.
Already this year the company has launched a vegan cajun chicken-free roll, vegan southern fried chicken-free goujons - in shops with hot cabinets - and a return for its vegetable bake, as well as different drinks including Innocent branded items. Greggs has also been trialling flavours of hot chicken wrap across some of its Newcastle shops, a move which is said to have generated interest on TikTok.
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The made-to-order BBQ and sweet chilli chicken wraps were also being trialled alongside loaded goujons with wedges, available with vegan chilli, chicken katsu goujons and a chicken burger available in a ciabatta roll.
Ms Currie said: "They've been getting great feedback. Whenever we do a trial we never expect all of those products to land in the shop so what we're trying to do is trial two or three products at the same time and then we try to select the ones that our customers buy most frequently so they're big winners for us.
"We also make sure the shop team get to tell us whether, operationally, we're keeping it simple enough for them."
The new menu items come as Greggs announced bumper 2022 results showing £1.5bn sales and increased profits across its network of 2,328 shops. Plans are now in place to open 150 new locations this year as the bakery brand said its evening trade was growing as it looked to open more stores until 9pm.
Greggs pointed to its pizza and chicken goujons as current customer favourites and remained confident that its products represented value for money despite the ongoing cost-of-living pressures on consumers.
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