Bakery chain slows shop expansion

Bakery chain Greggs is to slow shop expansion plans and focus on “food on the go” customers under a turnaround to shore up sales after the recent summer heatwave left it nursing a £2m hit to profits.

The Newcastle-based company, which has nearly 1,700 shops, warned over profits for the second time this year as it said the hot summer weather saw like-for-like sales slump 3.2% in the five weeks to August 3.