Business & Economy
Baker Greggs plans 500 new jobs in pandemic rebound
August 3, 2021
A national high street baker founded on the streets of Tyneside has unveiled plans to create 500 jobs.
Greggs says it wants new workers to help it rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic after enjoying a “stronger-than-expected level of sustained sales recovery in recent months”.
The Newcastle-headquartered pasty and sausage roll maker says the jobs will be created across 100 new stores, with plans in place to increase its existing 2115 shop estate to more than 3000.
Bosses revealed their plans today (Tuesday, August 3) in a trading update for the half-year period to July 26, which showed sales had returned to pre-pandemic levels.
According to its results, the business recorded revenues of £546.2 million for the first half of 2021, which compared to £546.3 million in the same period in 2019.
The figure was higher than the £300.6 million recorded in the first six months of 2020.
Pre-tax profit for the first half of 2021 stood at £55.5 million, compared to a loss of £64.5 million in the same period a year ago.
Roger Whiteside, chief executive, said: “We once again showed resilience in a challenging first half, emerging from the lockdown months in a strong position and rebuilding sales as social restrictions were progressively relaxed.
“We continue to make good progress with our strategic priorities, growing the shop estate and investing in our digital capabilities to compete in all channels and dayparts of our market.
“While there continue to be general uncertainties in the market, given our recent performance we now expect full year profit to be slightly ahead of our previous expectation.”