Greggs becomes mince pie millionaire

High street bakery chain records total sales increase of over 3% leading up to the festive period, selling one million mince pies per week in the process.

UK high street bakery chain Greggs has published a sales increase of 3.1% for the four-week period to 26 December. Like-for-like the company recorded a sales increase of 4.0% during Christmas week, serving 250,000 more customers than the same period in 2008.

Mince pies proved to be a strong selling point for the bakers, with sales up 6.0% on the previous year. More than one million mince pies were sold each week during the Christmas build up.

Chief Executive Ken McMeikan commented: “I am very pleased with our sales performance, particularly over Christmas, in what has remained a challenging trading environment for the high street. We expect to report results in line with expectations when we make our preliminary results announcement on 18 March 2010.”

“The severe winter weather across the country has naturally brought particular challenges at the beginning of 2010. We are grateful for the enormous determination shown by our staff to maintain our service to customers under these testing conditions.”

McMeikan confirmed the company’s expansion plans for the year ahead, following a net increase of 10 stores during 2009, to 1,419: “We remain positive about our growth opportunities as we begin our programme of accelerated expansion to make the unique Greggs proposition accessible to many more consumers throughout the UK. We expect to add a net 50 to 60 new shops during the year, funding this growth and continued investment in our supply chain from our strong operating cash flow.”