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LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) - British baker and takeaway food
group Greggs - famed for its sausage rolls and vegan
snacks - plans to reopen 20 shops from next Monday in a trial to
see it can operate effectively with social distancing measures
as a coronavirus lockdown is eased.
All of Greggs' more than 2,050 shops have been closed since
March 24 when the lockdown started even though the government
allowed takeaway outlets to stay open.
Most of its employees were furloughed under the state job
retention scheme and the group has tapped the government for
finance to get it through the crisis.
"We want to play our part in getting the nation back up and
running again so we are planning to conduct a limited trial with
volunteers to explore how we can reopen our shops with new
measures in place that keep our colleagues and customers as safe
as we can when we re-open at scale," a Greggs spokeswoman said
on Monday.
All of Britain's retailers are drawing up plans to emerge
from the lockdown and some, such as home improvement retailer
B&Q, reopened some stores last week.
Greggs' trial at shops, all in the Newcastle area in north
east England where the firm is headquartered, will have a
limited product range and shorter trading hours. It reckons it
will need at least two weeks to evaluate the trial.
If feedback is positive, Greggs will move to phase two with
700 shops reopening.
It cautioned that phase two would only be possible if the
government has taken a first step in relaxing the lockdown which
could be to reopen schools, allowing more people to return to
work.
Greggs' working assumption is that schools will re-open on
June 1, allowing the phase two shops to reopen on June 8.
The final phase of its plan is to open all shops with new
operational measures in place by July 1, which is when
government furlough support is currently scheduled to end.
All its plans are subject to government announcements, it
said.
Greggs enjoyed a stellar 2019 when profit jumped 27%, partly
on the back of the phenomenal success of its vegan-friendly
sausage roll.
But the coronavirus crisis has severely jolted its prospects
and its shares are down 23% so far in 2020.
"We are especially concerned...about Greggs, where there are
severe trading peaks each day and the restrictions on
shoppers/store and social distancing in the queue may make life
extremely difficult. More working from home won't help either,"
said analysts at Peel Hunt.
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
