Greggs a manger aims for healthier, cheaper food-on-the-go
I often wonder why the likes of Costa draw lots of flak in terms of their impact on small town centres and yet Greggs goes from strength to strength. Even to the effect that the chant at one Scottish professional football club, to emphasise its rival’s small town nature is “Your Goalie works at Greggs!”.
I think along with Timpsons (another story for another day) some small businesses are seen to bolster everywhere they crop up and other seem a bit too corporate – just a thought. As this article reveals this supposedly homespun business on many a rural High Street is going from strength to strength.
It’s not all steak bakes and sausage rolls. Attempts by Greggs to reinvent itself as a healthier, Pret a Manger-style coffee shop chain are starting to pay off with half-year profits up nearly 50%.
The bakery chain, with 1,661 stores in Britain, introduced a range of freshly made sandwiches with fewer than 400 calories, and less salt and sugar. Its coffee blend has been changed, according to Greggs, to “make it taste smoother”.
Under its new boss, Roger Whiteside, Greggs has also been refitting its stores and adding more seating to tap into the unabated growth in coffee shops in Britain. Opening hours have been extended by half an hour in the morning and the evening (many Greggs shops are now open from 7am until 5.30pm) to catch people on their way into work and on their way home. Low commodity price inflation (such as lower pork and wheat prices) and the increasing tendency to eat food on the go are also boosting sales.
Greggs’ finance director, Richard Hutton, said: “We want to make sure we keep pace with changing taste. People have developed a taste for good coffee and healthy food.”