Greggs serves up a piping hot special dividend as sales rise
IN PROOF of the might of the humble sausage roll yesterday as bakery chain Greggs said like-for-like sales rose 5.9 per cent in the first 16 weeks of the year, up from 3.8 per cent on the same period in 2014.
It has completed 69 shop refurbishments, and plans to refit close to 200 more stores this year. It also opened 24 new shops, putting its total at 1,656.
As a result of all this activity, the chain served up a special surprise for its shareholders: a £20m – or 20p per share special dividend. That got investors interested – shares rose two per cent to 1,098.4p in early trading.
In January last year the chain announced plans to close all its remaining in-store bakeries and massive cutbacks on 400-odd jobs at its Newcastle headquarters. Then there was an unfortunate incident during which its logo was changed to something rather unpleasant on Google.
But its turnaround strategy – which included a focus on fresh coffee and posh sandwiches – seems to have worked. This January it said like-for-likes had grown 4.5 per cent in the year to the end of 2014.
“The strong start to 2015 has been supported by rising consumer disposable incomes and low input cost inflation,” the baked goods chain stated.