If you think Greggs is big, think bigger: the pastry purveying legend has just boosted its half-year revenue by 14% amid a combination of further store openings and resilient like-for-like growth.

And an interim heads-up from its CEO shows the business has a gnawing appetite for a fatter slice of the food-to-go market.

With a resulting dividend increase of almost a fifth, the UK's top brand in its sector says it has opened 51 net new stores in the six-month period, and it has again stated a target of 140-160 additions over the full year.

Greggs' aim is to achieve "significantly more" than 3,000 UK sites and that target looks realistic: with 2,524 trading at the end of June, the company now employs some 32,000 colleagues and its retail structure includes more than 500 units run with franchise partners.

Contrary to any jokes about "putting all your Greggs in one basket", Greggs runaway success story at the latest count includes a cleverly scattered presence across 16 Gloucestershire areas, including Gloucester (five), Cheltenham and Cirencester (three each), Tewkesbury (two) and one apiece in, Moreton-in-Marsh, Cinderford and Stroud.

Roisin Currie, Greggs CEO, said: "Our strong performance continued in the first half of 2024 - delivering on our strategic growth plan and building on last year's record performance."

Financial highlights included total first-half sales up 13.8%, with company-managed shop like-for-like sales up by 7.4 percent, while underlying profit before tax, excluding exceptional items, was up 16.3% to £74.1m.

 

Ms Currie added: "I am optimistic about the many opportunities ahead as we continue on our journey to become a significantly larger multi-channel business."

In all, 99 new shops opened in the last six months, including 25 with franchise partners. Key to the strategy, Ms Currie said, was relocation, with 30 shops upping sticks to locations judged to be more profitable. Modernisation was also ongoing (81 shops so far this year being reworked) to maximise on food prep efficienty and ease for digital collection. Two new state-of-the-art production facilities are moving towards completion in the Midlands, she said, as well as a factory in Derby, while a Kettering site is due to come online in 2027.

The retailing giant does, however, appear to have tapped into a popular internet joke by locating close to pharmacies and opticians – modern retailing is all about "specs, drugs and sausage rolls".