“It shows we have confidence in the business to be able to grow to that number,” Chief Executive Roger Whiteside said.

“And that’s not where we think it ends because we have built the capacity to go beyond 2,000 – that was just a nice round number we came up with five years ago when we started on this journey.”

That journey was a 5-year overhaul of its production, manufacturing and logistics systems. 

 

Next, Greggs will seek out new expansion opportunities.

 

“The growth will come from convenient access,” said Roger Whiteside. “We have mapped the UK and there’s thousands of opportunities in places like retail parks, industrial sites, business parks – areas where you wouldn’t normally put shops where are there are thousands of people who want access to food away from home, where they work or travel.”

 

The second Greggs ‘Drive-Thru’ shop opened at Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire and its first London Underground shop in Westminster Tube station was joined other transport locations such as Birmingham New Street station, Glasgow Buchanan bus terminal and East Midlands Airport. 

A new shop at London Bridge is also planned in September.

 

Roger Whiteside praised Greggs’ resilient performance amid challenging market conditions, with total sales up 5% to £476m and company-managed shop like-for-like sales up 1.5%.

 

Underlying operating profit was £25.7m, down on last year’s £27.6m, and Mr Whiteside said Greggs remains cautious for the future amid trading conditions affecting the whole sector and that the firm expects full year profits to be flat. 

 

Every successful Greggs’ expansion needs to be staffed, and it benefits everyone from the beleaguered payroll department to the part-time sausage-roll maker if there is a clear, unambiguous clocking-in system. 

 

Time and Attendance North East sells affordable, innovative clocking terminals. As well as bog-standard, “you’re in, you’re out”, the system can also record specific absence reasons, labour hours analysis, and keeps a live, up to date list of who’s clocked-in for fire roll call. Each clock can store details for up to 8,000 employees. 

 

The clocking in and out process is simple. The smartcard technology reads through non-metallic items, enabling the card to be used while inside a wallet or purse. As there is no physical contact between the card and reader, neither will become worn-out by continuous use or are affected by dust or residue from the working environment – unlike swipe readers. The cards’ use of passive electronics mean that they do not require batteries and have a theoretically infinite life. 

 

The cards have a durable, wipe clean plastic shell and are available in various colours. Typically, the blue cards are used for high visibility where shop-floor hygiene is of great importance, such as when staff are preparing those delicious sausage rolls, pizzas and pasties.

 

Backups are vital with this sort of technology. Not only is the clocking terminal capable of working independently of the PC, if the PC is switched off or fails, but it also has a battery backup (using Li-Ion technology) and a local fail-safe storage in case of power/communications loss.