The UK food-to-go and coffee chain continued to reallocate resources to larger, more profitable stores in 2024 and surpassed 2,600 outlets despite weaker winter trading
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Customers at a Greggs’ London Gatwick Airport outlet | Photo credit: Greggs
UK-based Greggs has posted record full-year sales and outlet growth despite lower consumer footfall denting fourth quarter revenues.
The Newcastle-based food-to-go and coffee chain achieved 11.3% year-on-year sales growth in the 12 months ended 28 December 2024 to exceed £2bn ($2.4bn) revenues, with like-for-like sales up 5.5%.
Fourth quarter group sales increased 7.7% but like-for-like sales growth during the period only reached 2.5%, which Greggs said reflected subdued UK high street footfall during the winter months.
Greggs also opened a record 226 new outlets last year. However, the value-focused chain closed 81 sites over the 12-month period, with 53 of the closures classed as ‘relocations’ – an ongoing strategy of closing smaller underperforming sites and relocating staff to larger, more profitable stores.
With 2,618 outlets trading as of 28 December 2024, Greggs forecasts it will open at least 140 net new stores in 2025 and has ambitions to reach ‘significantly more than 3,000’ UK stores in the longer term.
“2024 was another year of good progress by Greggs, with a record number of new shops opened and the £2bn sales milestone surpassed. Whilst lower consumer confidence continues to impact high street footfall and expenditure, our value-for-money offer and the quality of our freshly-prepared food and drink position us well to meet the headwinds we expect to see in the year ahead, and we remain confident in the significant long-term opportunity for growth,” said Roisin Currie, CEO, Greggs.
In a bid to ameliorate softer fourth quarter footfall, Greggs looks set to press ahead with plans to diversify its store portfolio. In July 2024, the food-to-go and coffee chain said it would focus outlet growth on locations where it was ‘underrepresented’, such as retail parks, transport hubs and supermarkets.
Greggs currently operates concession sites with UK supermarket chains Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco and counts London Gatwick Airport, Manchester Airport, Liverpool John Lennon Airport and Newcastle International Airport among its transport hub network.