£1billion success has been 75 years in the baking
Greggs hits sales milestone
IT’S the biggest bakery chain in the UK – and now annual sales at Greggs have broken through £1billion for the first time.
The company says publicity around the launch of its vegan sausage roll helped drive a sharp rise in sales.
The vegan snack made from meat substitute quorn, was launched at the beginning of the year, coinciding with Veganuary, when many people go vegan for a month.
It paid off, with sales rising by 9.6 per cent in the seven weeks to February 16. Here are some of the key moments in the Greggs success story.
John Gregg started out 75 years ago with the goal of delivering – by pushbike – fresh eggs and yeast to the families of Newcastle.
Ten years later, he chained up his bike and opened Greggs of Gosforth in the High Street – baking and selling fresh bread and treats. There’s still a Greggs there today.
Changes over the years have been made to include freshly ground fairtrade espresso, calorie figures have been added to the menu and free WiFi provided.
The fame of Greggs’ steak bake spread to Still Game with one episode featuring as a fictional Beefy Bake produced by Henderson’s the Bakers in the TV show.
There was a catwalk show with a difference in the run-up to London Fashion Week in 2015, which featured a dress made entirely from Greggs’ packaging including savoury bags and coffee cups.
The Greggs team know how to make you laugh on social media. Like the time they posted a pic on Twitter in 2017 of Fiona Bruce in a blue and yellow top of BY MARIA CROCE maria.croce@trinitymirror.com a similar pattern to the Greggs’ logo and asked, “Who wore it best?” Greggs sells 1.5million sausage rolls a week. Greggs announced plans to host Valentine’s Day earlier this year to serve up a romantic, candlelit dinner in its shops for the first time – with four courses and fizz – with doughnuts for dessert. The one-night menu of Greggs’ food given a special Valentine’s twist was on offer for £15.
Greggs now has 1953 stores across the UK, with expansion plans afoot.
Pre-tax profit last year rose 15 per cent to £82.6million, marking the fifth year in a row profits have increased. The firm’s shares have almost doubled in value since July last year. For the ad campaign for its vegan sausage roll, journalists were sent the snacks in mock iPhone packaging and stores sold sausage roll phone cases.
Publicity soared when Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan criticised the new snack on Twitter saying, “Nobody was waiting for a vegan bloody sausage, you PC-ravaged clowns.”
Photos of demonstrators on a street outside a branch of Greggs in Manchester led many to think an anti-vegan sausage rolls protest had been organised. But it was really about a Brexit deal.
The company’s involvement in the community goes back to the 60s, when Greggs started a free pie ’n’ peas supper for older residents in Gateshead.
Nowadays, they have an annual Children’s Cancer Run which has raised more than £5million for Cancer Research. And they provide a healthy breakfast for more than 6000 primary school children with their Breakfast Club programme.
They don’t use artificial colours, flavours, added trans fats or monosodium glutamate.
They have 22,000 members of staff and serve more than six million customers a week.
They own their own supply chain and manage their own logistics operation.
They’re investing £100million in a major programme to create centres of excellence in manufacturing and distribution.
You can find a Greggs in various locations from retail parks and shopping centres to industrial estates. There are drive-through Greggs and franchise partnerships in service stations and petrol forecourts.
Unsold food from shops goes to help others. There’s a dedicated application page for unsold food donations on the Greggs Foundation website. Customers can come forward if they know of a good cause that could benefit from unsold food. The amount of unsold food donated to good causes has increased by 45 per cent since 2016.