Profits (excluding exceptional income) at Greggs have increased by £20 million for 2023, which chief executive Roisin Currie hails as testament to “the resilience of the Greggs brand”.
The food-to-go retailer’s pre-tax profits surged 27% to £188.3m, up from £148.3m, with Greggs the leading “food to go” brand according to YouGov’s Brand Index.
Total sales grew to £1.8bn, increasing almost 20% on 2022 levels, with sales in company-managed shops up 13.7% year on year.
Brand awareness remains high at 95%, with Currie highlighting in her financial results statement that the brand has worked hard to “let people know that Greggs is for everyone”.
She said the brand was “stronger than ever before, with more people coming to us more often in more locations.”
Over the year, the brand has grown its instore presence in retailers including Primark, Tesco and Sainsbury’s. It has launched four new ‘Tasty’ cafés inside Primark stores, 17 further shops in Tesco’s, and five in Sainsbury’s.
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Currie also reported that Greggs’ tongue-in-cheek Christmas partnership with high-end department store Fenwick showed that its quality was welcomed everywhere.
The collaboration saw Fenwick’s chefs deliver gems such as “Greggs Benedict” and “Steak Bake” paired with truffled dauphinoise potatoes.
2023 also saw Greggs partner with Newcastle singer Sam Fender for a two-day live music event in its Grainger Street shop in Newcastle.
Currie said that Greggs has also seen more personalised engagement via its loyalty app, where customers can benefit from its popular “buy-9-get-the-10th-free” offer.
Use of the app doubled in 2023, to 12.5% of transactions in company-managed shops, up from 6.2% in 2022. In the final quarter of the year this exceeded 15%.
She said users of the app shop more frequently with the brand and that it provides additional opportunities to market to them directly.
Currie said she was confident that Greggs can deliver another year of good progress, and that there would be no change to management expectations in 2024.
Summarising the results, she said the retailer was “on track to deliver its bold five-year growth plan to double sales by 2026”.
