Greggs shows 'resilience' despite 'enormous' impact of Covid-19

Full year losses before tax are expected to be up to £15m. The high street chain does not expect profits to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022 at the earliest.

Greggs also had to make 820 redundancies, following "below-normal activity levels".

Fourth quarter company-managed shop like-for-like sales averaged 81.1 per cent of the equivalent 2019 level. Fourth quarter delivery sales were 5.5 per cent of company-managed shop sales.

Greggs said 28 net new shops opened in the financial year 2020 leaving it with 2,078 shops in its estate as of January 2, 2021.

Roger Whiteside, chief executive of Greggs, said: "Whilst the impact of Covid-19 has been enormous, we have established working practices that allow us to provide takeaway food services under the different levels of restrictions we have experienced.

"The breadth of Greggs' customer base provides ongoing demand for our services which, combined with our diverse geographical spread, has demonstrated the resilience of our business.

"With customers spending more time at home we have successfully developed our partnership with Just Eat to offer delivery services and have also seen strong sales through our longstanding partnership with Iceland, offering our products for home baking.

"We have resumed opening new shops where we see good opportunities, with those sites accessed by car performing particularly well.

"In light of the recent Government announcements significant uncertainties remain in the near-term.

"We have taken action to position Greggs to withstand further short-term shocks and are optimistic about our prospects for growth once social restrictions are lifted."

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