Greggs savours resilience in 'tough' market as sales rise

Greggs has hailed its resilience in a “challenging” market after notching higher sales.

The national high street baker saw total sales in its 2025 financial year rise nearly seven per cent to £2.15 billion, boosted by a 7.4 per cent uptick in fourth quarter revenues.

Demand was fuelled by clamour for lines including festive-themed baked goods and breakfast and lunchtime meal deals.

Bosses say the interest – augmented by protein shake and pizza menu upgrades – helped the Newcastle-headquartered pasty and sausage roll maker mitigate “weather extremes” and “subdued consumer confidence” across the wider food-on-the-go market.

They add the progress leaves the business – which began life selling eggs and yeast to North East families from a bicycle nearly 100 years ago – with “a strong pipeline of new opportunities” across 2026.

Praising its hardiness in a tougher climate, chief executive Roisin Currie also said the firm remains well set to extend its 2700-plus store estate towards the 3000 mark over the coming 12 months.

She said: “We made good progress in a challenging year, outperformed the wider market and increased our market share of visits.

“Our ongoing focus on efficiency allows us to deliver exceptional value to customers who are managing their budgets carefully.

“Looking into 2026, we expect the level of like-for-like cost inflation to be lower than in 2025, and are confident we can continue to mitigate this while retaining our value leadership.

“We also expect consumer confidence to remain a market headwind in the year ahead.

“However, our competitive position remains strong and we continue to take market share in a challenging food-to-go market.

“Our store opening programme will continue to drive further strong sales growth.”

She added testing work is now underway on a Derby-based frozen product-making and distribution hub, which is set to open later this year, with a new Kettering-based national distribution centre, in Northamptonshire, “on track” to open in 2027.

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