Greggs has opened its first standalone café within a Sainsbury’s store, as the two businesses accelerate their property partnership.
The café, which opened at Sainsbury’s Crystal Peaks store in Sheffield on Monday, is the third site opened since the pair launched with a concession in a Sainsbury’s petrol station in Bedfordshire in May.
Greggs property director Tony Rowson had previously revealed exclusively to The Grocer that the baker planned to open cafés within Sainsbury’s supermarkets. He did not reveal locations at the time but said that Greggs was targeting as many as “half a dozen” new sites by the end of the year, which would include a mixture of cafés and petrol stations.
The new Crystal Peaks store will be open seven days a week, and includes the option for customers to take away or dine in. It will create 15 jobs.
“We’re delighted to have welcomed Greggs to another Sainsbury’s store, this time in the form of a fantastic café concept that represents another first for our customers,” said Sainsbury’s director of commercial partnerships Elizabeth Newman.
“Greggs has proven very popular at Sainsbury’s petrol station in Biggleswade and we’re expecting the new café in Crystal Peaks to build on its success – I’m really looking forward to hearing what our customers think.”
The addition of a Greggs café is the latest stage of a three-year redevelopment plan announced by Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts in March 2022. Under the initial plans, Sainsbury’s would shutter up to 200 of its in-store cafes. In their place it would double the number of Starbucks cafés, as well as add 30 more Restaurant Hub formats through its partnership with the Boparan Restaurant Group.
Greggs already has partnerships with Asda and Tesco, and is targeting further openings as part of an ambitious expansion plan under CEO Roisin Currie aimed at doubling its turnover by 2026. The food-to-go giant is increasingly targeting roadside locations and travel hubs, including Gatwick Airport.
It could also include plans to relaunch an attempt at expanding overseas, Currie revealed in the company’s Q3 results update last week.
Currie revealed in August the baker is also on the hunt for a location to build a new distribution centre to support the growth.
“Our first Greggs café with Sainsbury’s is helping us continue to expand and diversify our retail estate as part of our ambitious property strategy,” Rowson said on Monday. “The opening will allow us to provide Greggs favourites to even more customers, in a format that complements Sainsbury’s Crystal Peaks store.”
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