{"id":717236,"date":"2026-07-29T12:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717236\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T12:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:27:08","slug":"matcha-and-protein-pivot-pays-off-for-greggs-as-profits-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717236\/","title":{"rendered":"Matcha and protein pivot pays off for Greggs as profits rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greggs’s pivot towards healthier products and trending drinks has helped it boost sales, with the bakery chain reporting a 20% rise in profit over the first half of the year.<\/p>\n

Greggs, the UK’s largest fast-food chain, has launched a range of new products this year, many of which latch onto trends such as high-protein salads and matcha.<\/p>\n

Greggs’s chief executive Roisin Currie previously told BBC News the rise of weight-loss drugs has led customers to to look for “smaller portions”<\/a>, which could affect its bottom line.<\/p>\n

Total sales for the bakery topped \u00a31.1 billion for the 26 weeks to the end of June – 7.2% higher than the same period a year ago.<\/p>\n

Pre-tax profit for the first half of the year was \u00a376.0m – up from \u00a363.5m for the first six months of 2025.<\/p>\n

Currie said the company was “broadening and innovating our menu in line with changing tastes and trends”.<\/p>\n

The company relaunched its salad range in May, “adding protein and increased choice for customers”.<\/p>\n

It is also trying to appeal to “new and younger customers” through its new iced matcha lattes<\/a>, and to health-conscious consumers by making nutritional information on its labels clearer.<\/p>\n

Greggs, which has more UK outlets than McDonald’s, opened 34 stores in the first half of 2026. That brings the total to 2,773, taking into account 31 store closures.<\/p>\n

More than half of the new openings were in areas with no Greggs stores within a mile. A similar proportion opened away from the High Street in locations including petrol forecourts, supermarkets, retail parks, hospitals and university campuses, it said.<\/p>\n

Currie said Greggs is monitoring customer behaviour to ensure new stores boost visits “without cannibalising existing shop sales”.<\/p>\n

She also said Greggs had no price rises planned after its breakfast, lunch and “big” deals went up in May, following multiple hikes last year.<\/p>\n

“Our prices are in a good place and we will now be working hard to protect the consumer and making sure that we can offer that value throughout the rest of the year,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greggs’s pivot towards healthier products and trending drinks has helped it boost sales, with the bakery chain reporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-717236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}