Surging demand for new vegan sausage rolls has helped bakery chain Greggs up its full-year profit outlook thanks to "exceptional" sales growth.
Shares in the group rocketed 12 per cent higher after the profit cheer, which came as it reported an 11.1% jump in like-for-like sales over the 19 weeks to May 11 after it launched its vegan sausage rolls across all its stores.
It made the move after it saw demand outstrip supply earlier in the year when the savoury rolls were only available in some shops initially.
The group, which has nearly 2,000 shops across the UK, said sales are now set to beat forecasts for 2019 despite strong trading from a year earlier, with underlying profits expected to be "materially" higher than predicted.
READ MORE: Greggs boosted by vegan sausage roll
In a trading update, Greggs said: "The exceptional level of like-for-like sales growth that began in January has been sustained in the months that have followed, driven by increased visits to our stores.
"Looking forward, the sales comparatives from 2018 become progressively stronger but we now anticipate materially higher sales for the 2019 year as a whole than we had previously been expecting."
Greggs said it had launched another vegan product as part of its new summer menu, a new and improved Mexican Bean & Sweet Potato wrap.
READ MORE: Scottish schools to serve vegan meals after human rights challenge
The new menu also features pasta salads, fruit and cold drinks, it added.
Greggs has continued to expand across the UK as it brushes off tough high street trading conditions impacting other retailers.
It opened another 38 shops in the first 19 weeks of its financial year, although 22 were shut, which helped total sales rise 15.1% against 4.7% a year earlier.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article