Greggs to deepen ties with Issa brothers-owned franchisees Asda and EG Group amid major store expansion

Greggs is poised to deepen ties with its biggest franchise partners after Britain’s best-known baker said it planned to open dozens more sites in key transport locations such as rail and petrol stations.

The London-listed business said it had opened 64 new stores since the start of the year, of which around a quarter were with franchisees, and planned to open up to 160 in total by the end of the year.

Greggs boss Roisin Currie said Asda, which is co-owned by the billionaire Issa brothers, had been the firm’s biggest franchise partner to date, with kiosks in its supermarkets and petrol forecourts, alongside the forecourts of EG Group, also owned by the Issas.

Rontec-owned forecourts were another major franchise partner, as well as Britain’s two biggest supermarkets, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

“Our strategy is to be available to customers wherever they want to shop with us,” Currie told the Standard.

“What [on-the-go] customers purchase is the same as they purchase on the High Street.

“We currently have 16 franchise partners and hope to have a pipeline of more for the next couple of years.”

Greggs today reported a 7.4% rise in like-for-like sales to £693 million for the first nineteen weeks of the year, with delivery sales, evening trade and increased participation in the Greggs App all supporting transaction volume growth.

The baker said its pizza boxes have been in strong growth following a dedicated campaign and hot food continues to perform well, with chicken goujons and potato wedges proving popular with customers.

Greggs also plans to purchase new equipment for its stores amid a roll out of a fresh range of iced drinks over the summer across hundreds of sites. The firm has also taken out a new property lease in Derby in a bid to increase its manufacturing and logistics capacity.

Shares fell 1.7% to 2,770p.