Greggs has hailed a transformational, record-breaking year in which sales soared above 1.16bn.
Unveiling full year results for the year ended December 28 2019, the Newcastle firm said total sales were up 13.5% to £1,167.9m, while pre-tax profit excluding exceptional items were up 27.2% to £114.2m.
Operating profit meanwhile jumped from £82.6m to £114.8m.
Overall the firm opened 138 new shops, while closing 41, leaving 2,050 branches of Greggs open across the country at the end of the year.
It is now looking to grow the size and quality of the shop estate to more than 2,500 shops, while adopting a multichannel approach to increase customer access to Greggs.
The firm’s successful year saw it deliver additional returns to shareholders, and those qualifying from its 25,000 strong workforce will now share a record annual profit share payment of £12.8m, on top of a special one-off dividend of £7m announced in January.
Looking ahead Mr Whiteside said the firm had seen a very strong start to the year, but warned that there had been a significant slowdown in February due to storms.
The impact of the Coronavirus outbreak was also uncertain, he said.
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He said: “2019 was an exceptional year of progress for Greggs, during which we experienced a sustained increase in customer visits as increased awareness and appreciation of our brand gathered momentum.
“Our exceptional performance was founded on the changes that we have made across our multi-year strategic investment programme, which has delivered transformational change across the business and has now set us up for the next phase of growth.
“We made a very strong start to 2020 in January, but in February saw a significant slowdown in sales growth as a result of the storms that have affected the 海角视频. There is some uncertainty in the outlook, particularly given the potential impact of Coronavirus.
“This aside we expect to make year-on-year progress and will do so from a strong financial position, supporting our investment for further growth whilst also delivering good returns for all stakeholders.
“The business remains highly cash-generative and has been able to self-fund investment whilst also making a special dividend payment to shareholders and a one-off £300 ‘thank you’ to our colleagues in January 2020.
“In addition, I am delighted to announce another record annual profit share payment of £12.8 million, which will benefit all qualifying employees.
“As we approach the end of this transformational phase in our strategic roadmap we can look forward with confidence to the next stage in our journey as we build on this platform with the launch of our ‘Next Generation Greggs’ programme aimed at increasing customer loyalty, choice and access to Greggs across multiple channels at all times of day.”