Greggs has warned that the surging cost of raw materials, energy and staff wages would limit any material profit growth in 2022 after it reported record annual profit in 2021.
“As ever, we will work to mitigate the impact of this on customers. However, given this dynamic, we do not currently expect material profit progression in the year ahead,” CEO Roger Whiteside said.
He noted commodity pricing was already rising at the back end of 2021 as the world started to move out of COVID. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated the situation as both are huge producers of commodities such as wheat, corn and sunflower oil.
Greggs made a pretax profit of £145.6 million in the year to Jan. 1, versus a COVID-hit loss of £13.7 million in 2020.
Total sales were £1.23 billion , up 5.3% on 2019, before the pandemic impact was felt.
The group said it started 2022 well, helped by the easing of pandemic restrictions, with like-for-like sales in company-managed shops up 3.7% compared to the 2020 level.
