Newcastle-based bakery and food retailer Greggs plans to cut more than 800 jobs as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the Press Association.

Greggs CEO Roger Whiteside warned staff that the bakery chain “will not be profitable as a business” if sales continue at the rates they have been in lockdown, as it was confirmed that 820 staff will be let go.

In a statement posted on the Greggs employee information website earlier this week, Whiteside said: “Covid trading conditions have forced this action onto our business and we are all very saddened by the need to part company with around 820 friends and colleagues, many of whom have worked with us for many years.”

He added that “the battle with Covid hasn’t gone away and is intensifying further” as lockdown measures continue to be in place across the four nations of the UK.

Whiteside said: “At lockdown levels of sales, even after all of the mitigating action that we have taken, Greggs will not be profitable as a business and there can be no room for complacency.”