Greggs to open second motorway outlet

HIGH street bakery chain Greggs is to open its second motorway service station outlet at Birch services on the M60 near Heywood in June after describing the performance of its initial outlet at Lymm services in Cheshire was described as “encouraging”.

The Newcastle-upon-Tyne bakery chain made the announcement this morning after reporting a 4.3% increase in sales during the first 19 weeks of the year, although this was largely due to increased revenues from the 20 new shop openings.

Like-for-like sales fell by 1.8%, and chairman Derek Netherton criticised the government’s so-called “pasty tax”, arguing that it could lead to “further unemployment, high street closures and reduced investment”.

The decision to charge VAT on freshly-baked foods such as pasties, was described by Netherton as “unworkable and would give rise to many new anomalies and further uncertainties”.

He added that more than 300,000 of its own customers had signed a petition objecting to the tax, which could have “a material impact on our sales and profits” as affected products are currently responsible for more than a third of the company’s sales.

The firm also said that it was continuing to diversify its range and had recently opened a second “Greggs Moment” coffee shop in the North East. The firm has also recently trialled the concept in Manchester.

Meanwhile, following a successful trial of offering Greggs-branded frozen sausage rolls through Deeside-based retailer Iceland the firm has extended the range by adding a further eight product lines and rolled it out across 750 stores.

“These products, aimed at the ‘take home’ market, have been well received by Iceland customers,” he added.