Customers have flocked to high street bakeries throughout the UK during the London 2012 Olympic Games. Despite reports of ‘ghost town’ scenes in the capital, Ken McMeikan, chief executive of Greggs, said last week’s sales at its London outlets were up over 10% on a like-for-like basis, while growth in shops near Olympic venues, rose between 30-80%.

He added that its shop in Westfields Shopping Centre in Stratford, East London, which is located next to the Olympic Park, had smashed all records for the most money taken in one week – double what it would normally take in a seven-day period.

Neville Morse, managing director at Jane’s Pantry, said it sold 400 of its gold medal biscuits in the Games’ first two days across its nine Gloucestershire bakeries. “Sales of these were better than expected and we were straight into making a fresh batch the following Monday,” Morse added.

Warings Bakery’s six outlets in Berkshire and Hampshire sold Union Jack and gold medal cupcakes, which increased sales by 10% during the Olympics’ opening weekend. Daniel Carr, PR manager at Warings, said: “We did a deal and packaged cupcakes in fours, giving 50p off the usual price. We displayed them in appropriate locations, so that customers would choose them as an impulse purchase.”

The Cake Store in Sydenham, London, was required to fulfil a last-minute order for 10,000 cherry, date and mini cocktail scones for the Olympics’ tennis venue in Wimbledon, which it received on the evening of the opening ceremony and was needed for 12 noon the following day.

Tim Slatter, director at The Cake Store, said: “We have supplied our scones to Wimbledon for around 30 years, producing 7,000 a day for this year’s Championships. The venue’s organisers knew we were reliable and called upon us to fulfil the order. “It was hard and chaotic, but worth it in case we need to step in for any further shortfalls during the Olympics.”

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