Greggs targets breakfast and healthier food-to-go: IGD
Breakfast is a key area of growth for Greggs, with its value-driven £2 meal deal driving sales.
Greggs made good progress across a variety of fronts in 2017, adding new menu items to bolster its breakfast appeal and further bolstering its range of healthier eating products. This helped to drive growth in like-for-like sales of 3.2%, and a total sales increase of 7.4%, taking total sales to £960m for the 52 weeks to 30 December.
Greggs has continued to develop its breakfast offer, both in food and hot drinks, and will be a continuing focus in 2018. Sales of Gregg's healthier food-to-go options continue to increase, with menu choice being extended and ranges promoted. The Balanced Choice range, featuring products below 400 calories, now represents over £100m of sales and an increasingly important part of the product portfolio in-store.
Of the 90 net new stores opened in 2017, 45 were franchised units. If anything, net growth appears set to accelerate in 2018, with Greggs aiming to add 110-130 net new stores focused in travel, leisure and work-centred catchments. Furthermore, in the last year the new Drive Thru format has been successfully developed, with the first opened in Irlam, greater Manchester in June 2017. Significantly, another key strand of Gregg’s strategy is prioritising the realignment of its supply chain, including the creation of a number of product based centres of excellence at bakeries across the country. This, together with its focus on delivering the best customer experience and supporting its operations with first class support teams, provides a strong backdrop for future growth.
