Greggs predicts further growth as Britons seek value food options

By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's Greggs expects further growth this year as its range of baked goods and new products keep it on track to meet forecasts despite tighter household budgets.

Greggs' profit is predicted to rise 10% this year even as disposable incomes are squeezed by high inflation, with the company's value offering plus new products such as chicken goujons and its vegan Mexican chicken-free bake keeping customers spending.

Underlying sales across Greggs' 2,300 outlets climbed by 15.7% in the 10 weeks to May 13, which it expects to normalise over the year as it moves beyond comparisons against COVID-affected periods early last year.

But there will still be significant growth, Chief Executive Roisin Currie told Reuters, citing store openings in airports, along with later opening times and the fast food and bakery chain's ability to nibble away at the market share of competitors such as McDonalds and Costa Coffee.

Data from the Greggs app, which rewards regular purchases, showed the frequency of purchases increasing, she said.

"Exciting new products in the range convince customers to come for those extra visits," Currie said, adding that Greggs will launch a flat bread range and a sweet chilli chicken noodle salad box in the coming weeks.

Goodbody analysts described Greggs' performance in the year so far was "very resilient".

Shares in Greggs have soared 27% in the past six months, outperforming Britain's midcap index. The stock was down 0.7% in early deals on Tuesday.

Analysts expecting Greggs to report pretax profit of about 163 million pounds ($205.7 million) for 2023, Refinitiv data shows, against 148.3 million pounds in 2022.

($1 = 0.7923 pounds)

(Reporting by Sarah YoungEditing by Sachin Ravikumar and David Goodman)