Appetite for festive products and pizza have spurred another big rise in sales and record numbers of new stores at high street food firm Greggs.
Fourth quarter trading figures for the food-on-the-go firm show total sales for 2023 were £1.8bn, a 19.6% rise on the year before. Across the firm's company managed shops, sales were 13.7% higher.
Greggs said its seasonal product lines including festive bakes, Christmas lunch baguettes and chocolate orange muffins had attracted strong demand in the final part of the year. And bosses noted pizza provided sales growth, including via pizza boxes and pizza bundle deals.
Read more: North East confectioner Sweetdreams snapped up by SugaRich in undisclosed deal
Read more: Detection dogs use Kromek kit to sniff out radiation dangers on Ukraine battlefields
Investors were told the chain had last year opened a record 220 shops and closed 75, including 42 relocations. The expansion means Greggs now has 2,473 trading locations including 503 franchise shops. Chief executive Roisin Currie said that in addition to new business park and travel locations, there is still room for growth in core cities such as Newcastle, Leeds and Glasgow that already enjoy a high density of Greggs' stores.
And a healthy £195m cash in the bank is earmarked to help the chain open between 140 and 160 net new shops this year - creating hundreds of jobs - as it continues to take greater slices of the food-on-the-go market. Work to invest in its supply chain to back up this growth is also under way with a fourth production line being added to Greggs' Newcastle site - with capacity for another four million bakes per week - and extra capacity coming to distribution sites in Birmingham and Amesbury in Wiltshire.
Questioned about previous indications of overseas openings, Ms Currie told BusinessLive that teams were keeping an eye on potential foreign opportunities but that efforts were strongly focussed on the UK expansion plan, which aims for more than 3,000 shops.
The recent successes were the precursor to a chunky new year wage rise for staff with front line workers receiving a 9.6% boost from January 1 and the supply-side team getting 8%. A number of small price rises across a handful or products in December came in advance of the higher wage bill. When full year profits are published in March, Greggs will share 10% with its 28,000 employees.
More broadly, the firm sounded an optimistic note about continued wage inflation, suggesting it was good for consumer spending power. And signs that inflationary pressures are easing - across ingredients, packaging and energy costs - gave rise to hopes of a more stable 2024.
Ms Currie said: "2023 was a year of further progress by Greggs. I am proud of our teams, who did a fantastic job serving more customers as we continue to grow our shop estate and offer greater availability through digital channels and extended trading hours. We enter 2024 with plans to continue to invest in our shops and expand supply chain capacity to deliver the growth strategy, supported by our strong balance sheet.
"Our value-for-money offer, and the quality of our freshly prepared food and drink continue to evolve and position us well for further progress in the year ahead."
