Greggs begins to reopen its stores

Queues have started forming outside Greggs branches as the High Street bakery giant begins reopening its stores.

The firm’s shop at Broadstairs Court, Grindon, Sunderland, is among those now trialling new safety measures following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

A handful of people were calmly observing social distancing restrictions as they queued outside the store on Monday.

The company announced over the weekend that an undisclosed number of shops across the North East were to open their doors again after all its nationwide branches closed on March 24, following the United Kingdom lockdown.

The phased reopening progamme follows behindclosed doors trials involving just staff over the last fortnight. Chief executive Roger Whiteside stressed in a statement that the trials were in line with the Government's guidelines.

He added: "These trials are being conducted across a number of channels, including delivery through Just Eat, Click + Collect and walk-in customers. Colleague and customer safety continue to be the primary focus of the decisions we take as we start to reopen our shops. "Thank you for your patience while we work hard to play our part in getting the nation back up and running again and serving the communities in which we operate.

“We will continue to review this and will invite walk-in customers into our shops only when we can do so in the controlled manner we intended."