Greggs, the high street bakery chain, suffered a sharp drop in share price as it reported a slowdown in its like-for-like (LFL) sales growth.
The share price fell by 15% between 4.30pm on 11 January to 4.30pm on 12 January from 1,230p to 1,049p in the wake of the trading update for the year, which showed LFL sales had only grown 2.7% in Q4, behind the annual average of 4.7%
The price showed some signs of recovery today, rising to 1,071p at 12pm, but is still well below its pre-update level.
Greggs blamed the slowdown in growth on coming up against “stronger comparatives and the impact of weaker footfall in some shopping locations” over the festive period, but chief executive Roger Whiteside was generally positive about the company’s 2015 results.
The future
He said: “2015 saw us deliver another excellent year of progress as we continue to transform Greggs into a modern, well-invested food-on-the-go retailer.
“We anticipate that we will report full-year results for 2015 in line with our previous expectations. In the year ahead we will continue with the implementation of our strategic plan to enable the business to compete more effectively in the food-on-the-go market.”
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