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Greggs goes continental

NORTH East bakery chain Greggs is to start selling porridge and croissants to attract more breakfast customers after scoring a new best-seller with its bacon rolls.

The Newcastle-based company has sold 7m bacon rolls since it introduced them in February, and the breakfast buttie is now its top-selling sandwich.

“We think this is a really good market,” said Ken McMeikan, chief executive.

The baker saw a 2.6pc rise in sales in the first nine months of the year, after opening 32 new shops. Like-for-like sales were up slightly, rising 0.5pc. That slowed to 0.2pc in the third quarter and the company expects sales to be flat for the rest of 2010.

“We always thought we would have a tough second half,” said Mr McMeikan, adding that Greggs estimates consumers have about 4pc less disposable income than this time last year.

The company does not expect a further drop-off in sales. “We think uncertainty and caution is already built-in to the consumer psyche,” Mr McMeikan said.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .