Bakery retailer Greggs has revealed that it has found a piece of land which it believes is the right location for its planned new bakery in the south.

Chief executive Ken McMeikan told British Baker that plans for a new bakery site in the Wiltshire area was on the agenda at Greggs’ board meeting last week.

"We discussed a piece of land that we think is in the right location, but which we cannot disclose just yet," said McMeikan. "We’ve narrowed it down to two or three sites, which we are particularly keen on, but we think there is one that stands out slightly above the other two."

McMeikan said that, providing the plan progresses subject to planning permission, "The firm is on track with the original timetable we set out in terms of opening a new bakery in the Wiltshire area." He added that Greggs would hope to have the new facility up and running "somewhere around 2012 potentially".

In its interim management statement for the 18 weeks to 8 May, 2010, the firm said it was on track to open a net 50-60 shops in 2009, and announced plans to ramp up its shop refit programme to 120 shops this year, as it felt it had some "catching up to do".

Although like-for-like sales were up a modest 0.6%, with total sales increasing 2.6%, McMeikan added that he was very pleased with Greggs’ sales performance, particularly as sales have continued to increase against its strongest period of like-for-like sales growth in 2009.