Christmas sales rise at Greggs

Bakery chain Greggs said it enjoyed a resilient Christmas performance with total sales up 4.3 per cent in the five weeks ending January 5th 2013.

The high street bakery and sandwich chain said like-for-like sales fell 2.9% against the previous year's 5.1%.

Greggs cautioned that it expects the tough trading environment to continue during 2013 however it still expects full year results to be broadly in line with expectations.

Among its Christmas trading highlights Greggs said it sold a record 8.5m of its shop-baked sweet mince pies, up 7% on last year.

During the period the chain opened 121 new shops and closed 21 giving it a total of 1,671 shops at December 29th.

New wholesale and franchising revenues contributed 3% to total growth.

"We expect that the tough trading environment will continue during 2013, with consumers remaining cautious and inflationary cost pressure on a number of key commodities."

"However, having built strong foundations in 2012 for our multi-channel approach, we are well placed to drive further sales growth in the year ahead," Greggs said in a company statement.

The group finished the year with a net cash balance of £19m.

CJ