Newcastle-based Greggs said on Thursday that total sales for its financial year 2025 rose 6.8% to £2.151 billion, with like-for-like sales in company-managed shops 2.4% higher than those seen in 2024.
However, Greggs shares fell about 10% as it warned that “subdued consumer confidence” has continued to impact the food-to-go market and it expects consumer confidence to “remain a market headwind.” Greggs shares are now down about 40% for the past year.
Fourth quarter total sales were 7.4% higher than in 2024, with like-for-like sales in company-managed shops growing by 2.9%.
“Subdued consumer confidence continued to impact the food-to-go market, as did weather extremes earlier in the year,” said Greggs.
“Against this backdrop, Greggs increased its market share of visits, including at breakfast and in the evening.”
The Newcastle firm added: “In light of Q4 trading and continued strong cost management through 2025, the Board anticipates reporting a full year profit before tax outcome for FY25 in line with its previous expectations, before taking account of the one-off impact of accounting for £4.5 million that relates to previous years’ sales tax costs.
“Greggs ended 2025 with a net cash position of £47 million (2024: £125 million). As our capex levels moderate, we expect to revert from net cash consumption to net cash generation.
“Meanwhile, continued store growth, our strategic focus on driving LFL performance and our ongoing cost initiatives will ensure that return on capital recovers towards target levels.
“Looking into 2026 we expect the level of like-for-like cost inflation to be lower than in 2025 and are confident that we can continue to mitigate this whilst retaining our value leadership.
“We expect consumer confidence to remain a market headwind in the year ahead which, along with the costs of introducing our new supply chain capacity will put some temporary pressure on margins, as previously disclosed.
“However, our competitive position remains strong and we continue to take market share in a challenging food-to-go market. Our store opening programme will continue to drive further strong sales growth.
“Taking all of this into account, in the year ahead we expect to deliver profits at a similar underlying level to 2025, with any year-on-year improvement contingent on a recovery in the consumer backdrop.”
Greggs CEO Roisin Currie said: “We made good progress in 2025, in a challenging year where subdued consumer confidence impacted the food-to-go market.
“Against this backdrop, I’m pleased that Greggs outperformed the wider market and increased its market share of visits.
“We enter 2026 with a strong pipeline of new opportunities to make Greggs even more convenient for customers. This is underpinned by the investments we have been making in our supply chain capacity, which start to become operational this year. Our ongoing focus on efficiency allows us to deliver exceptional value to customers who are managing their budgets carefully.”