I choose to spend money on UK shares, so Greggs (LSE:GRG) might be a candidate for my Shares and Shares ISA.

This week (20 Could), it launched a buying and selling replace for the primary 20 weeks of 2025. Throughout this era, complete gross sales have been up 7.4% to £784m. Traders appreciated what they noticed and, on the day, the baker’s shares closed 9.1% larger.

A lot of this top-line progress was attributed to a rise within the variety of its outlets. When it floated in 1984, it had 261 of them. Now it operates 2,638.

Take into consideration that.

A Greggs in each nook

In keeping with the Home of Commons library, there are just one,099 cities and cities in Nice Britain.

This might be why, lately, the food-to-go retailer has more and more moved away from the excessive road to different high-footfall areas. However there are solely 97 motorway service stations and 60 airports within the UK. I do know there are a whole lot of supermarkets, however the group’s present in-store preparations with Tesco, J Sainsbury, and Asda will solely work of their bigger outlets.

In fact, it’s doable to have a couple of Greggs in a city or metropolis. In actual fact, there are over 40 of them in London. However the level I’m attempting to make is that the scope for growth is turning into more and more restricted. The chain has no plans to go abroad so, for now, it’s the UK market that counts.

Based mostly on the figures contained within the replace, every of its outlets has a mean turnover of £14,860 per week. That’s spectacular however it means growth into the nation’s 6,000 villages and small communities isn’t possible.

I believe there’s a restrict to the variety of sausage rolls that residents of a quaint English village are possible to purchase every week. And I doubt they are going to be pleased with the additional visitors and litter scattered across the church. However Norman and Marjorie, in order for you one close to you, Greggs is encouraging individuals to make contact — simply e-mail them at [email protected].

One other method

With fewer choices to broaden, it’s necessary to squeeze extra from its present footprint. Right here, it’s doing okay.

Through the first 20 weeks of the yr, like-for-like gross sales elevated by 2.9%. Product innovation has helped drive this. The group’s launched a brand new vary of over-ice drinks, potato wedges, and pizzas, which it says are doing significantly properly.

Nevertheless it stays to be seen how the transfer to more healthy consuming may have an effect on issues. Nonetheless, weight-loss jabs won’t be as massive a menace as some worry. Think about a state of affairs the place you may eat as many pastries as you want for a few months after which have just a few injections to lose the kilos gained. That’s my type of on-off weight-reduction plan!

Undoubtedly, Greggs is a British success story and has develop into one thing of an icon. Since Could 2020, its share price has risen 23%. Nevertheless it’s been a lot larger than this, which suggests some buyers consider there are at the moment higher alternatives elsewhere. And I are likely to agree.

Though I believe Greggs has tons going for it – together with its affordable 3.3% dividend yield — I worry that its price of progress is inevitably going to sluggish. For that reason, I’m not going to place the baker’s shares in my Shares and Shares ISA.