Greggs has opened almost two shops a week during the first 18 weeks of the year as the high street bakery starts to regain confidence.
The firm said it had opened 34 new stores so far this year and now had a total of 2,101 shops trading across the UK. It closed 11 stores during the period.
Greggs said that its expansion plans were based around high-performing locations such as retail parks, roadside sites and petrol stations.
Despite like-for-like sales being down on 2019, Greggs said it had seen a strong recovery in sales and now believed that its profit for the year could be around 2019 levels, materially higher that expectations. Total sales in the 18 weeks to 8 May were £352m, up from £280m in 2020 and down by around 6% on 2019’s £373m.
The group said: “Sales have recovered well in recent weeks as out-of-home activity levels have increased, albeit in the absence of competition from indoor seated catering operators. If restrictions continue to ease in line with current plans, then we now expect our overall sales performance for the year to be stronger than we had previously anticipated. Costs have been well controlled and the rate of cost inflation we are experiencing is in line with our plans for the year.”
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