DE4CC0DE-5FC3-4494-BCBF-4D50B00366B5
Retail

Vegan Sausage Rolls Help Brighten Greggs' 2019 Outlook

By Steve Wynne-Jones
Share this article
Vegan Sausage Rolls Help Brighten Greggs' 2019 Outlook

British baker Greggs on Tuesday said it expects sales and profit for 2019 to be materially higher than its earlier view, as its vegan sausage rolls rack up big sales at its shops.

Launched in January, the savoury snack has gained popularity, with sales growing as the company pushed it out to all of its stores. Sales of breakfast and traditional sweet bakery items are also growing strongly, Greggs said.

Vegan Solutions

Selling for £1 (€1.15), the company wanted to tap into the "Veganuary" movement that encouraged Britons to cut down on - or cut out entirely - meat products for health and environmental reasons.

It now expects sales and underlying profit before exceptional costs to be ahead of its previous expectations, but did not give any figures.

Analysts' mean forecast is currently £1.11 billion in revenue and pretax profit of £99.38 million, according to Refinitiv IBES.

ADVERTISEMENT

Total sales for the 19 weeks to May 11 rose 15.1%, while like-for-like sales in company-managed shops grew 11.1%.

Greggs also said annual cost inflation would be broadly in line with its plans, despite some increases in input costs.

Shares of the company were expected to open as much as 5% higher, according to premarket indicators.

News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.

Get the week's top grocery retail news

The most important stories from European grocery retail direct to your inbox every Thursday

Processing your request...

Thanks! please check your email to confirm your subscription.

By signing up you are agreeing to our terms & conditions and privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.