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.

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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