Bakery chain Greggs has granted its workers a 10% pay increase to at least £10.60 an hour from 1 January, up from the £9.62 rate brought in last year.
The new rate is above the national minimum wage for people aged 23 and over, which will increase from £9.50 to £10.42 on 1 April, but still short of retail leaders such as Sainsbury’s and Aldi which are paying at least £11 an hour. Normally the pay rise would come in from 1 April, but Greggs has moved early because of the cost of living crisis.
Roisin Currie, its chief executive, said the pay rise had been brought forward as Greggs always tried to “look after people”.
Greggs, a FTSE 250 firm, said it opened 186 new shops in 2022 and closed 39 shops and would again open about 150 stores net in 2023.
Currie said: “We enter 2023 in a strong financial position that will enable us to invest in shops and supply chain capacity to bring Greggs to even more customers across the UK.”
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Greggs said sales surged by 18% in established outlets in the run-up to Christmas as it continued to bounce back from the effects of Covid-19 on high street retail.
The Newcastle-based bakery has about 20,000 employees and 1,700 outlets. According to online jobs portal Breakroom staff, until the new pay rise, were earning team member hourly rates range from £7.51 to £9.62.
A team leader was being paid between £9.08 and £10, while a supervisor’s wages were set between £9.22 and £10.37.
A production operative was earning between £10 to £12.82 per hour.
Other retailers reporting strong trading figures included Next, which like Greggs has reported stronger than expected profits over the past few months. This was put down to the company’s presence in retail parks, away from high streets.
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: “Next, B&M and Greggs are united by having a presence on retail parks where business has been better than expected in general. Widespread train strikes will have prevented a lot of people from going to city centre shops, which means retail parks with their plentiful parking spaces have been the preferred alternative shopping destination.”
Sainsbury’s today revealed it was increasing basic staff pay to £11 as it attempted to retain staff in the face of stiff competition on the high street for labour.
Today (5 January) marked High Pay Day, the point at which FTSE100 chief executive pay so far this year reached £33,000, exceeding the median yearly average salary of UK workers.
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