Greggs fans could soon be able to skip the queue and get their lunchtime sausage roll from a vending machine.
The high street bakery chain has revealed it’s looking to experiment with some brand new retail formats, following ‘promising’ response to its first three Bitesize shops.
These are smaller stores serving a reduced range of food and drinks in train stations, airports and retail parks.
But according to the company’s C-suite team, ‘unattended retail solutions’ could be the future, which is just a fancy way of saying vending machines, in case you were wondering.
Here’s everything we know so far…
When are Greggs launching vending machines?
Trials of these unattended retail solutions are going to be happening ‘very shortly’, as was revealed during the company’s recent earnings call.
Richard Hutton, chief financial officer for Greggs, claimed that this will include ‘both automated and manual vending solutions’.
Where will the vending machines be?
No specific areas have been shared as of yet for where we can expect to see these vending machines popping up.
However, Richard said the technology would help the chain access smaller locations that can’t support a Greggs store.
This, in turn, would allow for ‘significant growth opportunity in underrepresented catchments’.
He went on to tease that there are several other big things the brand is working on ‘in the background’, which he believes will ‘leverage Greggs to drive additional income in the years ahead’.
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However, he remained vague on the finer details, admitting the business is ‘not quite ready to talk about that’, and there will be ‘more on that to come’.
Greggs chief executive, Roisin Currie, added that there were several trials in the pipeline currently, to ‘provide convenience for customers’ and ‘unlock additional customer missions’.
Metro has contacted Greggs for further comment.
This comes after the chain recently revealed that the UK hasn’t yet hit ‘peak Greggs’ – but it would be coming.
The chain currently operates more than 2,600 sites nationwide, but the goal is to have more than 3,000.
To put that into context, that’s almost double the number of restaurants McDonald’s currently has in the UK.
Roughly one million sausage rolls are produced by the bakeries each day, but that’s not all you can get, with new items being introduced all the time.
For instance, Greggs recently unveiled several menu additions for Spring, including Hot Cinnamon Yum Yums (£3.50), an Iced Caramelised Biscuit Latte (from £3.35), and a Caramelised Biscuit Latte (from £2.85).
The Yum Yums are hot pieces of doughnut covered in a sugar glaze and topped with a lightly spiced cinnamon dusting, and are served with your choice of milk chocolate or salted caramel flavour dipping sauce, while the coffees both feature a blend of ground coffee, with a caramelised biscuit flavour, with sugar and sweetener.
The new items will be available nationwide from Thursday, March 5, in stores and for click and collect via the app.
How to get a free coffee from Greggs…
If you don’t have the Greggs app, but love nipping into the bakery for a coffee, you’ll want to download it ASAP.
That’s because new app users are able to receive a free or iced drink of their choice upon registration, as well as a free sweet treat to celebrate their birthday each year.
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