Greggs set to raise prices as costs climb
British bakery group Greggs today forecast further price increases as it looks to cope with higher overheads, including rising wage and energy bills.
The company, which has more than 1,200 outlets in the UK, said its selling price inflation averaged 2.1% in the first half of the year but was now running at 2.4% and likely to continue to rise.
Despite the upturn, managing director Sir Michael Darrington said trading remained strong with like-for-like sales up by 6.2% in the past 18 weeks.
Stripping out the early part of the period, when comparisons were helped by the hot summer of 2003, Greggs said sales were 5.4% ahead.
Darrington added: “Our budgets assume that like-for-like sales growth will trend gently downwards over the remainder of this year, reflecting the steadily strengthening comparative performance in 2003.”
He said profits in the year to date had been in line with expectations with “satisfactory progress” forecast for 2004 as a whole.
