The boss of Newcastle food-on-the-go giant Greggs says it is working on vegan versions of all its best selling products following the success of its vegan sausage roll.
In an interview with radio station LBC on the day Greggs opened its 2,000th store, Greggs chief executive Roger Whiteside revealed the company was looking at the possibility of creating vegan versions of products like steak bakes and pasties.
The vegan sausage roll helped the Newcastle business record an 11% rise in sales earlier this year and has been much copied by other food producers.
Mr Whiteside said the vegan products were part of Greggs鈥 transformation from a traditional baker to a food-on-the-go specialist that had seen it buck the national trend of closures on the High Street.
He said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e working away to see if we can come up with a vegan version of all our top selling lines because people want a vegan option. That鈥檚 what鈥檚 been shown by the vegan sausage roll.鈥
Mr Whiteside鈥檚 comments come on the same day that Greggs opened its 2,000th store at the new public transport interchange in South Shields, part of the company鈥檚 strategy to open in locations that are more convenient for customers, particularly transport hubs.
He said: 鈥淭he vegan sausage roll was another example of us trying to develop things that are in keeping with where people are and what people want to consume more of these days.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been very successful with the vegan sausage roll but long before that we鈥檝e had success with coffee - we鈥檝e now overtaken Starbucks to be number three in the 海角视频 coffee market. We鈥檙e number two in breakfasts and these are areas that a backer business or a bread shop would be expected to be market-leading in.
鈥淏ut we鈥檝e managed to turn our attention to those areas because that鈥檚 where the growth is.
鈥淢ore and more people are wanting to eat vegan-style products so we offer them them a vegan style version of our best-selling line, which is the sausage roll.鈥
Mr Whiteside said he was 鈥渄elighted鈥 to be opening its 2,000th store in the North East, 鈥渨here Greggs started its journey.鈥
The opening comes as Greggs approaches its 80th anniversary, having been started in 1939 by John Gregg, initially selling eggs and yeast from a bike around Newcastle.
The company now has sales of more than 拢1bn a year and employs 22,000 people around the 海角视频.
