After that sausage roll, Greggs plans a full vegan menu

ITS vegan sausage roll was a soaraway success.

Now Greggs is planning to do the same with some of its other bestselling products.

Vegan recipes for all of the bakery chain’s most popular products – including steak bakes, pasties and doughnuts – are in development, chief executive Roger Whiteside revealed yesterday.

He said: ‘We are working away to see if we can come up with a version of all our bestselling lines because people want vegan options.

‘If we can produce something that tastes just as good as the meat version, then that will sell very successfully. That’s what’s been shown with the vegan sausage roll.’

The vegan sausage roll, which is made with ‘mycoprotein’ Quorn, was such a hit when it launched in January that Greggs had to increase production to satisfy demand.

The sales boom drove profits higher and the company went back to City investors several times last year to say it was making more money than it had expected.

Mr Whiteside has previously said the vegan product helped change the perception of Greggs from ‘an old-fashioned bakery from the North’ to a ‘modern food-on-the-go brand’.

A shake-up of its menu, to include speciality coffee, porridge, soup and wraps, has transformed the group into a serious rival for chains such as Pret a Manger and McDonald’s.

It has also announced plans to enter the takeaway dinner market, keeping shops open until 9pm. Despite the firm’s forays into new areas, the original versions of all of its most popular products are still expected to be available.

Greggs handed shareholders a £35million special dividend in July after sales leapt 10.5 per cent and profits jumped more than 50 per cent to £40.6million in six months.

EMMA COWING IS AWAY