Newcastle upon Tyne / UK. (gs) British Greggs PLC, the leading bakery food-on-the-go retailer in the UK with more than 2,000 retail outlets throughout the country, announced its Interim Results for H1-2020 – the 26 weeks ended 27 June 2020. The first phase of the pandemic confirmed the resilience of the business model. The re-start was encouraging. The company is confident with regard to long-term growth.
Adapting to the Covid-19 crisis
- Shops closed for most of the second quarter
- Temporary financing arranged through Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF)
- Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) enabling continued employment of furloughed colleagues
- Encouraging sales trend since shop reopening; latest week reaching 72 percent of 2019 level
- Diversity of shop locations and broad customer appeal proving a strength
- Adapting investment in strategic growth priorities; digital channels rollout being accelerated
- New shop pipeline remains strong but temporarily slowed until outlook becomes clearer
- Continuing investment in improving supply chain efficiency
Financial performance
- Total sales in H1 2020 GBP 300.6 million (H1 2019: GBP 546.3 million)
- H1 Company-managed shop like-for-like sales down 49.0 percent
- Pre-tax loss GBP 65.2 million (H1 2019: GBP 36.7 million profit)
- Net debt at period end of GBP 26.2 million, reflecting operating cash outflows and issue of GBP 150 million of CCFF commercial paper
- Working to establish bank financing facilities in second half of year
- No interim dividend declared
Roger Whiteside OBE, Chief Executive: «Following successive years of unbroken growth Greggs made a great start to 2020, coming into the year with momentum and clear strategic plans. The strength of our business model enabled us to secure the liquidity needed to support our business through the current crisis and then to adapt our operation and strategic investment plans in response to the new environment.
«I want to thank the amazing team of people in our business who have risen to the challenges created by this crisis both in supporting the wider community and working together to redesign our operation to work safely under these new conditions.
«Greggs is now well prepared to deal with the challenges of social distancing and operate through the conditions we are faced with. Greggs remains a much-loved brand with long-term growth opportunities and the business is better placed to adapt to new conditions than ever before.»
For additional information please read the Company’s PDF file below (220 KB):
20200729-GREGGS-H1-2020.