British baker and fast food chain Greggs kept its full-year outlook as underlying sales rose in the third quarter and it won market share, showing the resilience of its value offer in a cost of living crisis now into a second year.
Greggs also said today that the rate of cost inflation had eased as it annualised the significant commodity-led increases it saw in 2022.
The group's sausage rolls, steak bakes, vegan snacks and sweet treats have chimed with consumers whose income has been dented by high inflation. Its shares are up 45% over the last year.
Greggs' like-for-like sales in company-managed shops rose 14.2% year-on-year over the 13 weeks to September 30, its fiscal third quarter, having been up 16% in the first half. Total sales rose 20.8%.
Greggs opened a net 82 stores in the quarter, taking the total to 2,410.
It also extended trading hours into the early evening at more stores, increased customer participation in its app, and further developed its delivery service with a second partner, Uber Eats.
Greggs said the board's expectations for full-year results were unchanged.
Before today's update analysts were on average forecasting a 2023 pretax profit of £165m, according to Refinitiv data, up from £148.3m in 2022.
Meanwhile, Greggs could launch an overseas trial next year, 15 years after abandoning an attempt to sell baguettes to the Belgians, its boss said today.
Chief executive Roisin Currie said the possibility of taking Greggs abroad again was "a live project".
"We have a small team of three that are currently working on that," she told Reuters in an interview after Greggs updated on trading.
"We are doing research around markets, the customer proposition, the demographics, where we think Greggs would work," she said.
"When we start to gain confidence in a market that we think is right for us then we will update on that."
Currie said any move overseas would start with some small trials.
Asked if this could happen next year, she said: "It depends on the opportunities that come up."
"If there's a very compelling opportunity then it may be the case."
Currie would not be drawn on which countries Greggs might enter.
Greggs quit its loss-making, 10-shop business in Belgium in 2008 to focus on its UK operations.
Currie said there was no rush to take Greggs overseas again because it still had lots of growth to go for in the UK.
It currently trades from 2,410 stores and is targeting "significantly more" than 3,000.
