COMMENT The Greggs strategy is centred on our purpose and vision to be the customers’ favourite food-on-the-go retailer and while we have successfully built a presence in the high street, we know that to really achieve this ambitious plan, we need to be focusing on reaching customers wherever, whenever, and however they need us. That’s why a key focus for us is expanding our presence in travel locations across the UK.
We have reached an exciting stage in our growth journey where we are now opening in new locations you previously wouldn’t have found a Greggs. In July, Greggs opened its first London airport site in Gatwick’s South Terminal. This was a major milestone in our expansion strategy.
The Gatwick opening also marked a significant step in our strategic growth plan. In October 2021, we unveiled our ambitious plan to double revenue by 2025 and accelerate the rate of net new shop openings to 150 per year from 2022, with an ambition to reach significantly more than 3,000 shops across the UK. In the two years since, we have made strong progress, growing the estate to 2,378 shops as of 1 July 2023. This has been driven by 50 openings in transport hubs across the UK, a 61% increase from 2019, including eight in airports and openings in railway stations including Canary Wharf and King’s Cross in London.
Expanding in these types of locations, where Greggs has traditionally been underrepresented, hasn’t always been easy for us. Historically some landlords in these locations did not see Greggs operating in their properties.
We have broken through this barrier by demonstrating that we can evolve and adapt as a business to appeal to a broad range of customers. Perceptions of Greggs have shifted in the last decade, as we have moved away from being a traditional high street bakery to a value food-on-the go operator with great-tasting, high-quality products.
In addition, we have proven ourselves to be a reliable tenant to landlords, particularly during the pandemic, when we continued to honour all of our rental commitments.
A key driver of this growth has been expanding our offering to customers. This has included extending our evening trade and introducing more hot food options, such as our popular chicken goujons and pizza slices.
Our multi-channel development has also supported our growth in transport hubs. The click-and-collect service on the Greggs App allows customers to see our menu, personalise their order, and then skip the queue to pick it up. We have continued to build on the success of customising our breakfast menu by introducing new additions to the menu, such as customisable pizzas. As we continue to grow this channel, we have seen increased participation in the app, with more than 10% of transactions in the first half of this year made through the Greggs App.
Although we are a food-on-the go operator, our seating channel also continues to be popular and can be grown or adapted to fit the location we are opening in. Our Gatwick shop is 1,600 sq ft – twice the size of a typical Greggs shop, with 52 seats and space for our click-and-collect channel, which is particularly popular among Gatwick’s employees.
The continued growth of our shop estate is in many ways just the start of our journey. With the door now open, there are even more opportunities for us to expand our presence in many more travel hubs across the UK, bringing Greggs to even more people every day, at more hours of the day. As we continue to deliver our strategy, we aim to be the go-to food-on-the-go operator in transport hubs across the UK.
There are exciting times ahead.
Tony Rowson is property director at Greggs
