Greggs, the bakery and café operator, has said that its ‘Balanced Choice’ range of healthier options now accounts for over 10% of sales.
It said that demand for healthier choices in food-on-the-go continued to grow and sales for its Balanced Choice range, offering fewer than 400 calories and good nutritionals, exceeded £100m in 2016.
In the summer, the company built on its early success in sandwiches and ‘no added sugar’ drinks by launching a range of freshly prepared salads followed by a new range of savoury bakes in the autumn. Alongside these developments, it extended the availability of fresh fruit, freshly prepared yoghurts, fruit and nut snacks and our first gluten-free products.
It said that breakfast continues to be the fastest growing part of its trading day, linked predominantly with customers travelling, thereby lessening the brand’s dependence on general shopping footfall.
In terms of delivery, the company said that whilst “we do not see an opportunity in home delivery we do believe that a smartphone-based order and collect service for customers offers future opportunity”.
The company this morning reported a 4.2% rise in like-for-like sales for the year to the end of 2016.
Total sales increased 7% to £894.2m (2015: £835.7m), whilst operating profit excluding property profits and exceptional items were up 8.6% to £78.1m (2015: £71.9m).
Pre-tax profit excluding exceptional items stood at £80.3m (2015: £73.0m)
The company said that 2017 had started in line with our expectations, with company-managed shop like-for-like sales up by 2.% in 8 weeks to 25 February 2017.
Underlying (excluding New Year trading pattern) company-managed shop like-for-like sales in weeks two to eight up by 2.9%.
It said that continue to see opportunities to increase its estate to substantially more than 2,000 shops and in 2016 opened 145 new shops (including 56 franchised units) and closed 79, growing the estate to 1,764 shops trading as at 31 December 2016.
At the end of 2016, it had 157 franchised shops operating in travel and other convenience locations, with a particular focus on motorway services and petrol forecourts. The company expanded its presence in Northern Ireland in the year, opening seven company-managed shops and two franchised units, bringing its total shop numbers there to 10 at the end of 2016.
The group completed 208 shop refurbishments during the year and in total 92% of its shop estate now operates in a food-on-the-go format.
It said: “The results of our refurbishment programme continue to be strong, both in terms of return on investment and the repositioning of the Greggs brand as a contemporary place to buy and eat food-on-the-go. In the year ahead we plan to refurbish another 200 shops, completing the conversion of our legacy bakery shops and starting to refresh older food-on-the-go shops to the latest look and facilities.”
The company expects to open 140-150 shops this year, including further development of our franchise partnerships, and to close 40-50 shops. It said it would continue to relocate shops to rebalance its estate, increasing its presence in travel, leisure and work-centred catchments
Chief executive Roger Whiteside said: “In 2016 we delivered another strong performance as we continued on our journey to transform Greggs from a traditional bakery business into a modern, attractive food-on-the-go retailer. Our product offer is evolving to meet the changing needs of our customers and our shop estate and service levels have benefited from significant investment.
“The UK consumer outlook is more challenging than we have seen in recent years, with industry-wide pressures emerging in commodities as well as labour costs. However we are confident of making further progress as we implement our plan to grow Greggs as a contemporary food-on-the-go brand.”
