Bonus content: Greggs on the high street

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0:52I'm Graeme Ruddick and this is the Business Leader Podcast. Few businesses have more shops in the UK than Greg's. Greggs has more than 2 ,600 shops across the country which for context is way more than McDonald's or Starbucks In fact, only the major supermarket chains have more shops in the UK than Greggs and Greggs wants to add even more So who better to ask about the state of the UK's high streets than Roisin Curry, the chief executive of Greggs We've had loads of great feedback from listeners to our podcast interview with Roisin Curry about the secrets of the success of Greggs So we wanted to give you more Greggs.

1:32This is Roisin Currie on UK High Streets. First question, what does Greggs look for when it's trying to decide where and if to open a new shop? Yeah, so we do something called a white space review. And we do that in various different ways. So number one, we look at density right across the UK. So the areas where we are most dense in locations of Greg Shops are some of our heartland areas. So it's places like Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, South Wales. And in those locations, you will have Greg Shops serving around 15 ,000 of the local population. And interestingly, we still find areas to open in Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, South Wales.

2:20so if you if you sort of said okay well you know is that the sort of density that you're looking at across the UK it's not because there are heartland areas but if you then go down to areas like south coast Kent actually there are swathes of those locations where you cannot even access a Greggs even if you get in your car and you try to go there you know you're going to drive for 20 25 30 minutes before you come across a greg so so the number if you do density across the uk is significantly more than 3500 i'm not going to give you the number because it gets people uber excited and actually we're not saying that's the number we're saying it's up to 3500 in this next stage of the plan the other piece that we do is we have looked at areas catchment type locations where we're underrepresented.

3:14So these would be places like petrol forecourts, it'd be places like retail parks, it'd be places like supermarkets, industrial locations, roadside locations. And again, if you cut those numbers, there are significantly more opportunities for us in the UK than 3 ,500. So transport locations are a good example. So if I think about petrol forecourts, I think there's something like 8 ,200 petrol for courts across the UK we are in less than 500 of those which would just say to you now we wouldn't be in all of them but it just says to you gosh look at how many more opportunities there are. What makes a good location for an individual shop and how has that changed over the last decade I think you've gone from 18 % being non-high streets now like 48 and a half percent is the high street still a good location for Greggs and what are you looking for in a site?

4:09Yeah, so you're looking for footfall. That's the ultimate number one. We're a food on the go brand, so you are looking for locations where people are on the go. And high streets continue to be a great location for us. interestingly what we've worked really hard at probably for the last decade actually is we do lots of relocating of our shops because what you'll find in a high street is really good location great location to serve delivery customers because normally in a high street it's suburban you'll have lots of housing round about so therefore great for couriers to be able to get in and out deliver in quick time to those customers but what you're looking for in a high street is if a high street's been redeveloped and there's a new shopping centre being built or maybe the bus station's been moved you want to try and make sure that when you get the opportunity to regare your lease on that property actually you want to try and move to the busiest part of the high street and that really is where we're very lucky in that lots of small shops lots of leases and they're usually on a 10-year term with a five-year break so the retail team and the property teams will work hard together before a lease comes up for renewal probably a couple of years before they start to decide do they want to reinvest that shop refurbish it make it more modern give the teams the facilities that need behind the scenes or would they like to relocate somewhere in that high street and and therefore it's a it's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle that we constantly move the pieces to try and make sure we follow the footfall and so that might mean is moving across the road it frequently means actually we are in the right location but that might have been a small traditional shop and therefore we sometimes then just knock next door into the unit next door double the size of the unit and for a lot of our customers that might mean that they had a small shop previously and maybe it didn't do hot food and maybe it didn't of the full range maybe we didn't do delivery from that shop and actually by giving the team more space they can then offer the customers the full range and all of the different channels and relocations are winners for us because you keep the experienced team so the team that have already been serving in that shop they continue to serve you probably recruit a few more people and the customers already know you so you've got the customers that were already coming to you frequently but hopefully now you can excite and delight them with more products and the full range with delivery and so the re if the retail team were sitting here today it's probably relocations that super excite them there are a few if any businesses that must have the insight into high streets that the greggs does given the number that you have and the fact you're all over the country so what what makes a thriving high street in 2025 what does it take for high street to work yeah I mean gosh if I think about myself personally I think you've got to have a reason to want to go to that location and I think we've seen it you know for a number of years now probably with the advent of online shopping it's not always just about shopping for customers some of it's about experiential you know what else is happening in that location I think there's a lot of socialization around where do you meet your friends and also even if you want to shop online I don't think you can beat actually being out and about and looking at the fashion in different shops, looking at the quality, touching and feeling something, trying it on.

7:42So I think there's something around. You've got to create a reason for the British public to want to go to that location. And I think that there's something about no matter how appealing online shopping is, and it is from a convenience perspective, I don't think anything beats being out and about and meeting. your friends or being out with your kids shopping, stopping and having a cup of tea and I think it just gives you a reason to be out the home meeting up with people and doing something different but I think it's got to be compelling that actually people want to go there. And then the other piece that I would say is convenience so whether or not that is people can get to that high street easily whether that's you know bus trains however they want to travel or they can park easily as well and we know and the number one sort of reason that customers are out and about and choose someone in terms of food and the go is the convenience of the location and and that's probably just a factor of we all live really busy lives so therefore make it compelling for me to go to somewhere because I get value out of it and I'm more likely to go more often.

8:54Are you optimistic or concerned about the future of high streets? I'm optimistic I have to say I think it is this piece around you've got to have flexibility so I think where where I would worry was if I thought I couldn't move my shops frequently to go where the footfall is I think because we are small box model we're on leases we can move frequently I think that allows us just to constantly flex and change and follow where the customer is. And I actually, if I look at our portfolio of shops, I think that's probably something that Greg's has been exceptionally good at, is making sure that we constantly invest in our shops and refurbish them and give customers the full offer.

9:45we're constantly innovating in terms of menu we're constantly bringing new channels to the market evening and delivery and we're constantly moving our shops into locations where there is more footfall so train stations is a really good example of that I don't I'd probably say if you went back 10 years I'm not sure we'd have had any shops in a train station and yeah I look at you know the train stations that we go out and about and visit now they are really compelling shops I was in London last week visiting a few of our train station shops with our teams. They do an amazing job. I mean, those shops are open probably from 5 in the morning till either 11pm or midnight, and they are busy all the way through that trading day.

10:29So again, that starts to very naturally extend your trading day because you're in a location where there is such high footfall. you've been listening to the business leader podcast with me graham ruddick our producer is anushka tate for more business case studies and masterclasses please check out businessleader.co.uk

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