Greggs' recipe for festive success

ITS mince pies, which beat those from Fortnum & Mason and Marks & Spencer in taste tests run by Good Housekeeping magazine, helped High Street baker Greggs to a bumper Christmas.

After a tough, hot summer when sweltering customers preferred ice-creams to sausage rolls and pasties, Greggs is back on track.

The final 10 weeks of its trading year saw like-for-like sales up 3%, with the two Christmas weeks 3.3% better, making the second-half sales rise 2.2%.

Chief executive Sir Michael Darrington, ennobled in the New Year Honours, said: 'It was a steady story of rebuilding after the summer, with good growth in sandwiches and savouries outweighing a decline on the bread side.'

Bread and rolls account for only 10% of sales, but Greggs - which also owns the eat-in Bakers Oven brand - has had to try to pass on last year's 15% rise in flour prices following a poor European grain harvest.