Greggs (GRG)

Sector:

Food Pharmacy Retail

Index:

FTSE 250

2,874.00p
   
  • Change Today:
      14.00p
  • 52 Week High: 2,904.00
  • 52 Week Low: 2,282.00
  • Currency: UK Pounds
  • Shares Issued: 102.26m
  • Volume: 83,510
  • Market Cap: £2,938.83m
  • RiskGrade: 191

Greggs forecasts £15m loss as sales decline slows

By Frank Prenesti

Date: Wednesday 06 Jan 2021

LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - High Street bakery chain Greggs said profits would not return to pre-coronavirus levels until 2022 at the earliest and forecast a loss of up to £15m this year.
The Newcastle-based company on Wednesday said fourth quarter like-for-like sales to January 2 at its managed stores slumped almost a fifth to £293m from £344m, although this was a slower decline and an improvement from 71.2%of 2019 levels in the third quarter. In the five weeks to January 2 like-for-like sales fell 14%.

Fiscal year total sales fell to by a third to £811m from £1.16bn. Greggs reported a profit of £114.2m a year ago.

The company also confirmed the 820 job losses forecast in November as the lockdown imposed in March saw its stores shuttered.

"Looking ahead, the significant uncertainty over the duration of social restrictions, along with the impact of higher unemployment levels, makes it difficult to predict performance. However, we do not expect that profits will return to pre-Covid levels until 2022 at the earliest," the company said in a trading statement.

The company, best known for its vegan sausage rolls, which had proved to be a sales success before Covid-19 hammered the retail sector, said it opened 84 new shops during 2020 and closed 56, bringing the total estate to 2,078. Greggs plans to open another 100 shops this year.

"Whilst the impact of COVID-19 has been enormous, we have established working practices that allow us to provide takeaway food services under the different levels of restrictions we have experienced," said chief executive Roger Whiteside.

He added that the tie-up with delivery company Just Eat and a partnership with the supermarket Iceland to sell its products for baking at home had also helped boost sales.

He added that there were also "good opportunities" for new shops, "with those sites accessed by car performing particularly well".

Greggs ended the 2020 financial year with a net cash position of £37m, having repaid cash due to the Bank of England under the Covid credit finance facility and replaced it with a three-year, £100m revolving credit facility with a syndicate of lending banks.

Shore Capital analysts Clive Black and Darren Shirley said that the latest lockdown imposed on January 4 meant Greggs' 2021 performance "will also be heavily negatively impacted by the disease" and rated the shares as a 'sell'.

"Indeed, we see Greggs' whole market as being distorted by the pandemic as working from home becomes more structural, which hits travel hub and central business district trade volumes and, we believe, makes suburban demand more challenging too for the business, noting it may benefit from some capacity reduction in its markets too, so share gain of a smaller cake," they said in a note.

"As such, the pandemic is not a reason for Greggs to be regarded as the premium stock that it was in 2019 and whilst a vaccine will, hopefully bring some relief for Greggs and wider society, the legacy of Coronavirus upon society, its ways of living and working, works against Greggs' prevailing business model to us."

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Note 1: Prices and trades are provided by Digital Look Corporate Solutions and are delayed by at least 15 minutes.

Note 2: RiskGrade figures are provided by RiskMetrics.

 

Greggs Market Data

Currency UK Pounds
Share Price 2,874.00p
Change Today 14.00p
% Change 0.49 %
52 Week High 2,904.00
52 Week Low 2,282.00
Volume 83,510
Shares Issued 102.26m
Market Cap £2,938.83m
RiskGrade 191

Greggs Star Ratings

Compare performance with the sector and the market.
more star ratings
Key: vs Market vs Sector
Value
96.96% below the market average96.96% below the market average96.96% below the market average96.96% below the market average96.96% below the market average
84.62% below the sector average84.62% below the sector average84.62% below the sector average84.62% below the sector average84.62% below the sector average
Price Trend
70.63% above the market average70.63% above the market average70.63% above the market average70.63% above the market average70.63% above the market average
53.85% above the sector average53.85% above the sector average53.85% above the sector average53.85% above the sector average53.85% above the sector average
Income
69.48% below the market average69.48% below the market average69.48% below the market average69.48% below the market average69.48% below the market average
33.33% below the sector average33.33% below the sector average33.33% below the sector average33.33% below the sector average33.33% below the sector average
Growth
0.35% above the market average0.35% above the market average0.35% above the market average0.35% above the market average0.35% above the market average
69.23% above the sector average69.23% above the sector average69.23% above the sector average69.23% above the sector average69.23% above the sector average

What The Brokers Say

Strong Buy 5
Buy 3
Neutral 3
Sell 0
Strong Sell 0
Total 11
buy
Broker recommendations should not be taken as investment advice, and are provided by the authorised brokers listed on this page.

Greggs Dividends

  Latest Previous
  Final Special
Ex-Div 25-Apr-24 25-Apr-24
Paid 24-May-24 24-May-24
Amount 46.00p 40.00p

Trades for 28-Mar-2024

Time Volume / Share Price
16:35 33,565 @ 2,874.00p
16:35 23 @ 2,874.00p
16:35 6 @ 2,874.00p
16:35 5 @ 2,874.00p
16:35 564 @ 2,874.00p

Greggs Key Personnel

Finance Director Richard Hutton
CEO Roisin Currie
Chair Matthew Davies

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