Greggs chief executive Roisin Currie has said that while the retailer is seeing inflation coming down, she expects higher prices will remain indefinitely.
Currie said that she expected to see inflation come down to 7% in the second half of the year, from the average of 11% seen in the first half of 2023.
She warned that while prices will reduce from the historic highs seen during the year, she said they wouldnât get back to pre-cost-of-living levels any time soon.
âWe see inflation cooling, but weâre still seeing inflation in the system at much higher levels than weâve seen historically. Energy is a good example of that, itâs cooling from where it was over the last 12 months, but if you look back historically itâs still much higher than where it was.
âWage inflation similarly is very high in the market. And weâre seeing some of the food concentration numbers starting to come down, which is why weâre predicting in the right direction at the end of the year.
âWeâll hopefully see that progress. What weâve not seen is inflation reversing. Our view currently is that it will continue to cool, but it wonât reverse.â
Her comments came after the food-to-go specialist posted pre-tax profits of ÂŁ80m for the 26 weeks to July 1, 2023, up from ÂŁ55.8m during the same period last year, and a 21.5% jump in total sales from ÂŁ694.5m to ÂŁ844m.
Currie also said that Greggs was looking to capitalise on a deflated retail property market to target more than 100 new shops over the next six months â focusing particularly on travel hubs, such as stations and airports, and locations where the brand is underrepresented, such as supermarkets.
âWe have targeted travel locations and opened in airports like Glasgow, Cardiff and Gatwick,â she said. âWe have a strong pipeline of new sites and will target more of those areas.â
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