Whenever I’m walking down Cornmarket Street in Oxford – an otherwise unlovely thoroughfare – there is something about the spectacle of the enormous Greggs there that gladdens my soul. Compared to all the other overpriced, depressing places that sell lunchtime sandwiches in the area – I popped into Pret the other day and was astonished to be charged a fiver for some measly dried mango and a suspicious can of drink – Greggs is dedicated to giving its customers value for money that isn’t just welcome, but, in these straitened times, feels positively generous.
There has been a market for a modern-day Lyons’ to come in and succeed
The food is good, too. The steak bake is, of course, a thing of legend (improved by the surreptitious addition of HP sauce) but the sandwiches, sausage rolls and iced buns are all very fine. You’re not expecting gourmet cuisine, but unpretentious sustenance, served with a smile, and it’s hard to think of many places in the country that have cracked it better. It’s also not above having some fun. Last year’s collaboration with the Newcastle store Fenwick saw the advent of the ‘Greggs Champagne Bar’, in which patrons could pair Cristal with their sausage rolls, should they so wish.
It’s therefore wholly unsurprising that the bakery announced yesterday that it passed over £2 billion in revenue last year, and that its ‘further growth ambition’ encompasses diversification away from traditional baked goods into wilder and hitherto unsuspected areas. I already knew that it serves up hearty slices of pizza with yeoman-like efficiency, but I was surprised to learn that potato wedges and chicken goujons are also selling like hot cakes, if you’ll pardon the mixed baking metaphor.
Indeed, it seems as if Greggs is becoming not just the busy office worker’s go-to spot for a quick takeaway sausage roll or pastry, but an increasingly popular spot for dinner – albeit one of necessity rather than choice. Their chief executive Roisin Currie revealed that the vast majority of their new openings are not in Britain’s increasingly beleaguered high streets, but in train and bus stations and in student unions. Given how abstemious the young are said to be now, I imagine that most of their business there comes from the coffees they sell, rather than the more gluttonous options on offer for a post-pint carbs splurge.
The success of Greggs is hardly unprecedented, either. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, and beyond, the Lyons’ Corner House was a ubiquitous feature of any town or city. Here, the cash-strapped could get a hot meal of reasonable quality cheaply and quickly, served at volume. Changing tastes in eating out meant that Lyons’ Corner Houses had died out by the late 70s, but their replacement by the likes of McDonalds and Pret could only last so long.
Now, with customers increasingly financially conscious but unwilling to compromise either on portion sizes or enjoyable flavours, there has been a market for a modern-day Lyons’ to come in and succeed. It seems increasingly as if the ever-enterprising Greggs has bucked the downward trend in this country for eating out. They should be congratulated on being a great, and increasingly rare, British success story.
Yet there is a note of caution, too. Nobody would confuse the food on offer at Greggs with the salad-heavy offerings from Whole Foods and its like. But it is also true that an undiluted diet of carbohydrate, fat and sugar is unlikely to leave its most ardent patrons looking as svelte and fresh-faced as they might hope.
It is cheering that Greggs has managed to triumph in challenging circumstances, and their avowed dedication to continuing with their core baked goods range is a fine thing indeed. But the next time I’m tempted to indulge in a chicken katsu bake, a cherry bakewell muffin and a large cinnamon swirl latte, I should check myself, thinking of the calorific Götterdämmerung that I am about to wreak on my body. But for an occasional treat, it’s hard to do much better than this long-standing establishment. ‘Find your yummy’, the website cheerily extols me. It is always tricky to turn down such an offer.
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