Overview

• Greggs reported a 14.3% drop in pre-tax profit to £63.5m for the six months to June 28, sales rising 7% to just over £1bn.
• Unusually hot weather in June, heavy snow early in the year, rising costs: factors that disrupted footfall, squeezed margins.
• Its estate totalled 2,649 shops after 87 openings, 56 closures to rebalance underperforming locations.
• Greggs reaffirmed guidance for 140–150 net new openings this year, targeting more than 3,000 UK outlets over the medium term.
• The chain is trialling compact 'bitesize' outlets, testing self-service kiosks, planning frozen bake-at-home product launches in supermarkets.