Greggs has said that its full-year trading will be ahead of expectations.
Like-for-like sales are 0.8% higher than the same period two years ago.
The group, which has over 2,000 stores across the UK, saw strong sales of its Christmas products including 6.7m mince pies.
The group saw “a strong performance in October being followed by more challenging conditions as consumers responded to precautionary messages relating to the new coronavirus variant.”
“Our range continues to evolve in line with changing consumer tastes and dietary choices so the launch of our new Vegan Festive Bake was a natural next step,” the company said in a statement.
“The fourth quarter results were achieved against a backdrop of continued disruption to staffing and supply chains.”
“Our teams across the business have done a magnificent job coping under difficult circumstances and in recognition of this we brought forward the planned 2022 pay awards for our operational teams by five months.”
The group has also announced a new CEO. Roger Whiteside will be stepping down and be replaced by retail and property director Roisin Curry.
“The big news and overshadowing another solid earnings performance is long-time CEO Roger Whiteside is retiring, to be replaced by retail and property head Roisin Currie,” said Joshua Raymond, Director at financial brokerage XTB.
“Given the fantastic growth of the Greggs brand under Whiteside’s leadership, its no surprise to see some instability in the share price this morning, which trades lower by 2%.”
“However, Currie is also a longstanding member of the leadership team and so the expectation is the transition should be relatively smooth. What she faces is significant inflationary headwinds and what shareholders will want to see is stability in profit margins over the coming year. This will be no easy task for the new CEO.”