Greggs to reopen 20 stores in Newcastle on trial basis

A North East bakery chain has announced that it will reopening some of its stores on a trial basis.

Greggs, headquartered in Newcastle, has more than 2000 stores across the country, and will trial trading from 20 of those.

The company has said that it will open the stores on Monday (May 4), with shorter trading hours and a limited product range.

It said: “We want to play our part in getting the nation back up and running again, so we are planning to conduct a limited trial with volunteers to explore how we can reopen our shops with new measures in place that keep our colleagues and customers as safe as we can when we reopen at scale.”

Roger Whiteside, chief executive, commented: “The key principle in the plan is that we must accept that when we open, we will not be able to operate normally.

“We must have new social distancing and hygiene measures in place.

“We must be acutely aware that there remains a great deal of uncertainty in how our fight against this virus will develop, and should the situation worsen for any reason, we may be required to stop or delay the implementation of our plan.

“However, sharing our plan as soon as we are able to, should give us all a framework to base our future preparations upon.”

The company plans to have 700 stores open from June 8, with all 2000 stores reopening on 1 July once the government job retention scheme expires.

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