Greencore group, one of the UK’s biggest sandwich producers, has delivered a 4.4% total like-for-like (LFL) sales bump in its first quarter.

The food manufacturer also said that LFL sales for the convenience food division were up 5.4%, in the 13 weeks to 26 December 2014.

Driven by success in the food-to-go sector, the company also said that an extension for the Northampton sandwich facility had been commissioned in the period, and the first phase was now near completion.

In its trading update for quarter one, the company stated: “The overall grocery market remained challenging in Q1, with negative same store volumes and price deflation. Against this backdrop, our key chilled markets performed well, with continued good growth in the food-to-go market and a positive performance in the chilled ready meals market.”

For its ingredients and property division, which makes up 5% of the firm’s activity, revenues dropped 22.8% to £11.5m, due to the reduction in the commodity price of edible oils.

The company was criticised on the front page of the Daily Mail last year, for recruiting sandwich workers from Hungary rather than the UK.