Greggs opens 2,500th shop as takeover of UK high street continues

North East bakery chain Greggs has opened its 2,500th shop in the UK.

The milestone store is part of a petrol forecourt in Cobham, Surrey, which is shared with Sainsbury’s. The shop has created 12 new jobs and will be open seven days a week.

Having opened its 2,000th store in South Shields in 2019, Greggs has accelerated its expansion programme to take advantage of more affordable premises in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic. It plans to open between 140 and 160 new shops this year, with a focus on expanding its presence in travel hubs and roadside locations to reach more customers.

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In 2021 Greggs launched its five-year growth plan which included ambitions to grow its estate to more than 3,000 shops in the UK. That number includes traditional high street stores but also franchises, sites in stations and petrol forecourts, and shops within supermarkets. The Cobham store is Greggs’ eighth partnership with Sainsbury’s and its 50th with one of the main supermarket chains.

Tony Rowson, property director at Greggs, said: “We’re proud to have hit this milestone and opened our 2,500th shop in a location which demonstrates the breadth of our estate and the popularity of our brand. We are grateful for the hard work of our teams and the support of our valued partners as we continue to expand towards our vision of significantly more than 3,000 Greggs shops longer term.”

Rhian Bartlett, chief food commercial officer at Sainsbury’s added: “We’re delighted to have opened our eighth shop with Greggs at our Cobham store. It follows the successful launches of Greggs café-style formats at other Sainsbury’s locations, which have already proved popular with our customers. Our collaboration with Greggs is part of our ongoing plan to attract many more people to choose Sainsbury’s as the place they come to for good food, and we’re excited to build on this partnership further.”

Greggs will next week issue an update on its trading in the first three months of this year. That follows results released in March which showed the firm’s pre-tax profits for 2023 stood at £188.3m. At the same time, Greggs said that it had overtaken McDonald’s in the UK breakfast market.