Greggs may have just opened its 2,500th store but is it stopping there? No chance

With its sights set on “significantly more than 3,000 shops” in the UK, Greggs property director Tony Rowson is as busy as ever eyeing new property opportunities for the business.

Greggs opened the doors to its 2,500th store in the petrol forecourt of Sainsbury’s Bridgeway, Cobham, last week, marking a milestone in its store expansion journey and creating 12 new jobs.

The Greggs narrative has been a great success story so far, bringing new openings, partnerships, pay rises for staff and ongoing growth.

With that in mind and a full pipeline ahead, Rowson is keen to take a moment to pause and reflect on the most recent milestone for Greggs.

“We’re very excited to hit this number of 2,500; it shows that we’ve grown significantly over the last few years,” he says. “We’ve also been on quite a transition. If you dial back 10 years ago, we were a very different high street bakers to where we are now.

“We have a strong food-to-go brand now. What’s also exciting is that we’re nowhere near capacity, there’s a lot of growth yet to come right across the UK.”

Rowson says last year was a record year for Greggs when it opened 145 net new stores. With even bolder ambitions of between 140 and 160 openings this year, as well as several resizes, Greggs is dead set on reaching as many customers as possible. 

Supermarket success

The Cobham shop was Greggs eighth in partnership with Sainsbury’s, bringing the total number of branches with supermarket partners, including Tesco and Asda, to 50. 

“Supermarkets is one of those location types where we’ve seen significant growth,” says Rowson. 

“Having a balanced and diversified store estate means that where one part of the business might struggle on particular days of the week, another part will counteract that and keep that balance. I think that’s one of the beauties of supermarkets – it’s a great, safe location to be in.

“People always need new supermarkets and whatever gets thrown at us in future years in terms of challenges, if we have a significant number of supermarkets as part of that estate, it helps us keep that balance and diversification.”

And while Greggs may be expanding, it is managing to avoid over-saturation.

“It’s not about having a Greggs on every corner, rather that you can go to a significantly large town and find one in the supermarket, one at the train station, a drive-thru and one in a retail park.”

With an eye to some of its other partnerships, Rowson notes the success of its relationship with Primark. While it may have been an unlikely arrangement at a first glance, he says the retailer has really enjoyed working with the fashion giant and that there a lot of synergies when it comes to culture.

While Rowson refuses to spill the beans on future collaborations, he hints that there are potentially more in the works off the back of these successful partnerships so far.

Value advantage

Rowson is keen to point out that Greggs is recognised for value, rather than simply for being cheap. He says perceptions have changed as the business has grown and that has benefited the brand when it comes to negotiating new leases.

“I think when it comes to getting into a number of these locations, we’re a very different business now to where we were some years ago and most people have noticed and realised that,” he says.

“The value credentials have really started to punch through. There’s a connotation that cheap is not good quality, whereas our bacon is cooked fresh in the ovens right there in front of you, our coffee is great and our sandwiches are freshly made inshop every day.

“Because we’ve got the purchasing power of 2,500 shops and we’re vertically integrated, we can maintain those value credentials and maintain the quality over the other brands out there.”

Proud of Greggs’ value offer, Rowson emphasises the recent news that it knocked McDonald’s off the top spot of food-to-go breakfasts in the UK last year. The demand for its £2.85 breakfast roll meal deal is certainly higher than ever.

“What we’re seeing now with landlords is there is more of an open door, where there isn’t the prejudice that was there before. Actually, consumer demand shows that people want this value offering.”

Ongoing opportunity

While breaking into central London had been a massive challenge for Greggs in the past, it has become a bigger opportunity.

Rowson says the retailer is still active in London, despite quieter days as a result of hybrid working and ongoing train strikes. He says that the biggest opportunity lies in building evening market share.

Greggs currently has a live trial in Newcastle with 10 shops offering chicken burgers and wraps in the evening as it experiments and broadens its product range.

“We watch the market very closely. We’re building our evening market share, and we have more shops now trading through to 7pm and 8pm in the evening.

“We’ve had a late-night license approved at London Bridge and Liverpool Street is going through the process. We’re going to keep working a lot at our late night trade as the demand is absolutely there.”

Whether it’s morning, noon or night, Rowson expects Greggs to cater for ever more mealtimes – an open still more stores.