Greggs PLC (LSE:GRG), the UK bakery chain, left its full-year profit guidance unchanged after like-for-like sales rose 1.6% in the first nine weeks of 2026, with total sales up 6.3%.
The company said it expected to deliver profits at a similar underlying level to 2025, though it warned that any improvement would depend on a recovery in consumer spending.
The cautious outlook followed a year in which rising costs weighed on margins despite healthy sales growth, with underlying profit before tax falling 9.4% to £171.9 million on total sales of £2.15 billion, up 6.8% on 2024.
Like-for-like sales in company-managed shops grew 2.4% over the full year, as Greggs added 121 net new shops to bring its estate to 2,739 locations.
The company is targeting around 120 net openings in 2026 and said it saw a clear long-term opportunity for significantly more than 3,000 UK shops.
Capital expenditure peaked at £287.5 million in 2025 and is expected to fall to around £200 million in 2026, before dropping further to a range of £150 million to £170 million from 2027, at which point the company said its cash generation would create capacity for additional returns to shareholders.
Greggs delivered structural cost savings of £13 million in 2025 and said strong plans were in place to achieve further savings in future years.
The total ordinary dividend was held at 69.0p per share, with a recommended final dividend of 50.0p per share.
Evening trading remained the fastest-growing daypart, accounting for 9.4% of company-managed shop sales, while delivery sales rose 8.1% to represent 6.8% of company-managed shop revenue.
The Greggs Rewards App was scanned in 26.7% of company-managed shop transactions, up from 20.1% in 2024, with the company noting that app users visit more frequently than non-users.
Chief executive Roisin Currie said easing inflationary pressures should provide some support to consumer spending in the year ahead, and pointed to a strong pipeline of shop openings and new product launches as underpinning the company's growth prospects.