Despite sales rising this year, the steep cost of food and packaging has hit the bakery hard…
Greggs has warned it may be forced to increase its prices for the third time this year as inflation continues to soar.
The bakery chain added between 5p and 10p to the price of its products at the start of 2022, and raised prices again in May as a result of the increasing cost of ingredients.
Yet despite Greggs’ sales rising by 27% to £694.5m in the first six months of the year, pre-tax profits remained steady amid pricier food and packaging, resulting in the company anticipating declining profits.
Thanks to this, Greggs bosses have warned customers could expect prices to rise once more by an estimated 9% at the end of this year.
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However, Greggs’ chief executive Roisin Currie told PA News Agency that the company has fixed prices with suppliers for the next five months, meaning the cost of its food and drink should not rise any further in that time.
Currie said: “We know the economic environment is challenging and it is tough out there for our customers, so we are doing everything we can to protect our price proposition.
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“We are not immune to cost inflation but we are trying hard to mitigate against it impacting customers.”
In an attempt to claw back profits, Greggs plans on extending its opening hours, offering more menu options and launching more delivery services in order to gain more evening sales.
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Though keeping prices as low as possible isn’t the only way Greggs is helping its customers during the cost of living crisis; back in May, the bakery chain launched two new school breakfast clubs that allows pupils to enjoy a nutritious morning meal for free.
The new clubs at East Ward Primary School in Bury and Castleton Primary School in Rochdale joined eighteen existing schemes running across the region.
They offer children a selection of breakfast options to enjoy before the school day, including toast, cereal, fruit, yoghurt, juice, and milk.
Lynne Hindmarch, breakfast club manager for the Greggs Foundation, said: “Through breakfast clubs such as this, we’re able to support over 46,500 children each day nationally, and new openings like these are helping us to continue heading towards reaching our target of serving 70,000 breakfasts each school day by 2025.”
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NHS bosses have since defended the controversial gesture
An NHS trust has divided opinions this week after an employee allegedly received a single tea bag as a thank you.
Eva O’Connor claimed her dad, who is an employee at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, received the peculiar gesture in a small cardboard envelope in the post.
She shared a video of her dad opening the gift onto TikTok, which came with the message: “A little treat to say thank you” alongside NHS branding.
In the video, Eva added the text: “what my dad got at work as a ‘treat'”, alongside sarcastic hashtags such as #teaisahumanright and #clapforcarers.
Treat yo self #nhsworker#teaisahumanright#nhs#clapforourcarers#treat
Social media users were less than impressed by the gesture, with many pointing out the ongoing issue with low wages and chronic under-staffing among the NHS’s workforce.
One person commented on the TikTok video: “The amount of money it cost to design and make could have gone toward a pay rise… Or at least just put a box of tea bags in the staff room.”
Another noted: “Ah yes. A nice cuppa to have on your break that you probably won’t get because of staff shortages.”
Other NHS employees used the video to share their own experiences with gifts from their employer, which included stories of hot chocolate sachets, pens and biscuits.
Ahh yes, who needs fair pay when you can have *checks notes* a teabag (From Tiktok) pic.twitter.com/gjz2hlfWSh
One person shared: “My work gave us all a free sample (one sheet) of those colour catchers you put in the washing machine. Didn’t even try to hide the free sample bit.”
However, the NHS has defended its actions, saying the tea bag was merely one part of a hamper of gifts sent out as an ‘act of kindness’.
Matthew Hopkins, Chief Executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said in a statement to Proper Manchester: “Of course we are hugely grateful for the hard work done by all our staff caring for our communities, and we are always seeking new ways to show appreciation and kindness to our teams.
“By way of an extra small but sincere thank you to our midwives and nurses for International Day of the Midwife and International Nurses’ Day, back in May, we sent each of them a certificate and a gift bag with a number of items in, including a branded tea bag, to encourage them to take a break.
Saying thanks to @WorcsAcuteNHS staff, a Thread:⁰ We're hugely grateful for the hard work of staff caring for our communities and always seeking new ways to show kindness to our teams⁰ We work with @WorcsCharity & trade union partners on how best to show our appreciation [1/5]
“We wanted to let them know how much we appreciate all the hard work they do and also further raise awareness of the important work our hospital charity is doing to support our staff wellbeing.
“It’s a shame that one small act of kindness, done with good intent as part of one of the many ways we say ‘thank you’ has been taken out of context in this way.”
This comes as NHS nurses prepare to vote on what could be their first ever strike in a dispute over pay.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said it will be advising hundreds of thousands of its members to support industrial action in a ballot that opens in mid-September.
The barbecues pose a massive risk in unusually dry and hot weather
Sainsbury’s and Tesco are the latest supermarkets to pull disposable barbecues from shelves amid the ongoing heatwave.
As the UK bakes in temperature highs of 35C, the supermarket giants have made the decision to stop selling disposable barbecues across all their stores.
Sainsbury’s said the policy was a precautionary measure, after pausing the sale of disposable barbecues until further notice due to the fire risk they pose in the unusually hot and dry weather .
A spokesperson for the supermarket said: “As a precautionary measure we are removing from sale all disposable barbecues until further notice.
Crews from Oldham were out again last night dealing with a fire in moorland caused by a disposable BBQ. Fortunately our crews were able to bring the fire under control by this morning. Having a BBQ (or any fire) on the moors is thoughtless & irresponsible in this extreme weather. pic.twitter.com/YEGxHTu2z1
“Safety is our highest priority and we have made this decision due to the hot and dry weather that we are currently experiencing across the country.
“We will continue to closely monitor the situation and listen to customer feedback.”
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According to ITV News, Tesco has temporarily paused the sale of disposable barbecues across the UK, but it will continue to offer small metal portable barbecues for customers, saying that disposable barbecues will be made available again once weather conditions allow.
This comes after other retailers including Waitrose and Aldi announced they would no longer stock disposable barbecues due to their ‘detrimental impact’ on the environment and wildlife.
Co-Op and Morrisons don’t sell the barbecues in any of their stores near national parks.
Just last month, the Oldham Fire Team were called out to reports of a fire caused by a disposable barbecue in Oldham moorland.
While the fire was eventually brought under control, the crew took to social media to warn of the dangers these barbecues can pose, especially during extreme weather.
They wrote: “Crews from Oldham were out again last night dealing with a fire in moorland caused by a disposable BBQ.
“Fortunately our crews were able to bring the fire under control by this morning. Having a BBQ (or any fire) on the moors is thoughtless & irresponsible in this extreme weather.”
That’s an expensive Sausage, Bean and Cheese Melt…
A man has issued a warning to JustEat customers after he wound up spending over £200 on his Greggs haul.
Liam Halewood, thirty-six, treated himself to a Greggs takeaway on the JustEat app yesterday. His order consisted of a sausage, bean and cheese melt, a four-pack of cookies, a bag of Walkers crisps and a hot sandwich meal deal, totalling to a reasonable £11.80.
However, he was in for the shock of his life upon discovering he had been charged a staggering £249 for the JustEat delivery fee.
The Boy George impersonator, who lives in Blackpool, went on to share his receipt on social media as a warning for other customers to check their bank accounts.
A @katyperry no wonder they can pay you and @SnoopDogg megabucks for these adds just been charged £249 for a delivery from @JustEatUK xxx all jokes probably get it back but bloody hell is my order coming on a flight xx pic.twitter.com/zbvNhKei0p
Tagging JustEats in the post, Liam joked: “@katyperry no wonder they can pay you and @SnoopDogg megabucks for these adds just been charged £249 for a delivery from @JustEatUK xxx [sic] all jokes probably get it back but bloody hell is my order coming on a flight xx”.
However, Liam told the Liverpool Echo that he wasn’t the only customer to face extortionate delivery fees yesterday, explaining: “One [customer] said it was costing them £900 and another said it was going to cost them £399 for the delivery charges.
“I think JustEat has had a glitch in its system, which to be honest for a big company, it shouldn’t happen really.
“If someone didn’t check their statement and that money got taken out they say you only have like 24 hours to rectify any order that you have made.”
After sharing the receipt, JustEat reached out to Liam with a refund for the delivery fee and a £5 voucher for his next order.
Liam explained: “I think it is important that when you use delivery companies and when you’re paying on your card over the internet and the phone that you do check things anyway.
“Some older people who don’t really know how to use the internet might have just let that go but because I pulled mine up it got rectified dead quick.”
A JustEat spokesperson said: “We’re aware of an issue on our platform today that briefly affected the price of delivery orders for a very small percentage of our customers. This issue is now completely resolved and we are in the process of offering a full refund for all customers affected.”
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