Greggs has announced that it surpassed the £2bn mark in sales for the first time in 2024, although the bakery chain also warned of slowing sales at the start of 2025.
Shares in Greggs have fallen by more than 12% in today’s trading as the group reported a 1.7% year-on-year like-for-like sales growth in the first nine weeks of 2025.
This was Greggs’ slowest sales growth since the pandemic as it blamed “challenging weather conditions” in January.
Despite the slower start to 2025 and fall in the share price, Greggs did still post an 8.3% rise in pre-tax profit for the year to 28 December 2024, to £203.9m. The bakery chain also stated that it was confident it could “manage inflationary headwinds” and deliver another year of progress in 2025.
Greggs chief executive, Roisin Currie, said that the company’s sales were still “on track” with growth opportunity ahead.
“The brand is in better shape than ever, with a material opportunity to continue growing and developing the Greggs estate and plenty of scope to continue to grow in newer dayparts and channels,” she added.
Senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, Matt Britzman, commented that 2024 had been a “year of highs and lows” for Greggs.
“Greggs has limited influence over consumer sentiment but continues to perform well in a tougher environment, with its value-focused offering helping to maintain market share,” Britzman said.
“At best, like-for-like sales growth of 1.7% over the past couple of months can be described as robust, and management’s comments that trends improved in February are fairly encouraging.
“However, 2025 is shaping up to be a tricky year; consumers are hardly flush with cash, and costs are set to rise as Rachel Reeves’s Budget measures take effect.”
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