British baker Greggs said it would pay staff a special bonus to reflect a 'phenomenal' year when the launch of a much-hyped vegan-friendly sausage roll led to higher than expected profits.
Greggs, which has over 2000 stores on British high streets, has capitalised on the growing fashion for meatless diets and just days ago launched a vegan version of its steak bake following the huge success of its non-meat sausage roll.
The company said it will spend £7 million (€8.26 million) on a one-off payment which would be shared between all of its more than 20,000 employees as a thank you.
'Phenomenal Year'
"I am delighted to announce that we will also be making a special additional payment to all of our colleagues across the business who have worked so hard to deliver this success in what has been a phenomenal year," chief executive Roger Whiteside said in a statement on Wednesday.
The company had already increased its return to shareholders in October when it said it would pay a special dividend of £35 million (€41.3 million).
Its shares rose almost 80% in the last year.
Greggs said pretax profit for the year ended 28 December would be "slightly higher" than previous expectations. The market currently expects Greggs to report pretax profit of £111.6 million (€131.7 million), up from £89.8 million in 2018, according to Refinitiv data.
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