london british baker and fast food chain greggs raised its fullyear profit outlook on the back of strong trading in its latest quarter despite staffing and supply chain disruption shares in greggs were up 84 at 0946 gmt extending 2021 gains to 74 after the group best known for its sausage rolls steak bakes vegan snacks and sweet treats also set out a target to double turnover to about 24 billion pounds 327 billion by 2026 greggs plans to accelerate its rate of net shop openings to about 150 per year from 2022 from 100 in 2021 and sees potential for at least 3000 shops from 2146 currently advt the group also plans to extend evening trading to more shops and build on the success of a delivery service in partnership with just eat that has already been rolled out to 943 outlets in the long term it sees potential to expand overseas greggs third quarter likeforlike sales rose 35 compared to two years ago before the pandemic impacted trading it said growth was particularly strong in august when a staycation effect was evident and remained in positive territory in september with twoyear likeforlike growth of 30 in the four weeks to oct 2 however the group said it had not been immune to britains well documented pressures on staffing and supply chains and had seen some disruption to the availability of labour and supply of ingredients and products in recent months i wake up every morning and i find out whats short that day because something has been disrupted in the supply chain ceo roger whiteside told reuters theres some different thing going on every day with some different item despite acute pressures in the pork industry he said supplies of sausage rolls were safe food input inflation pressures were also increasing greggs has shortterm protection due to its forward buying positions but expected costs to increase towards the end of 2021 and into 2022 whiteside said he hoped greggs could avoid passing this on to consumers we have to watch the market greggs is a value leader so what we wont do is allow our leadership in value to be eroded he said advt despite all the disruption greggs said its operational cost control has been good and subject to any unexpected covid19 disruption expected the fullyear outcome to be ahead of previous expectations prior to tuesdays update analysts average forecast for fullyear pretax profit was 133 million pounds according to refinitiv data versus a 137 million pound loss in 2020 reuters published on oct 5 2021 at 0735 pm ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of