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Greggs’ new vegan sausage roll is poised to be rolled out around the UK after proving to be the Newcastle food-on-the-go favourite’s fastest selling launch in more than six years.

The flaky pasty treat went on sale on January 3 to great fanfare, with stores selling out of them almost immediately and its launch drawing a flurry of social media responses, including comments from Piers Morgan and Ricky Gervais.

Greggs chief executive Roger Whiteside – who received an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List – admitted the stir the vegan treat has caused has taken the firm by surprise.

But the business is now battling to meet demand, having sold hundreds of thousands in their first few days on sale – but customers eager to buy them, or even try them if they have so far missed out, may have a wait.

Mr Whiteside said: “The world has been consumed by the vegan sausage roll. It’s gone viral, which is great.

“It’s taken us by surprise quite how much excitement it has created.

“We’re not giving out numbers – it’s in the hundreds of thousands – but it is the fastest selling new product we have launched in six years. It’s literally flying off the shelves.

“We launched it in 900 shops. But with all the hype surrounding it, it sold out straight away and we have 900 shops who didn’t get it who are screaming out for it, so we are chasing our tail getting availability running.

“But you can’t just turn on a tap. We have to gear up production until we can respond and get the products out there, so it’s going to be hand to mouth availability in the next couple of weeks.

“We didn’t know if it would sell or not. Now we know it’s selling out we need to get it out there. The priority is to get it into existing shops, and then the other shops who didn’t get it will get it. We are pulling out all the stops to get it out there as quickly as possible.”

The vegan sausage roll has a way to go before smashing sales of its meaty rival - the bestselling sausage roll sells at a rate of around 1.5 million every week.

And, ironically, sales of the sausage roll have gone up since the launch of the vegan roll.

(Image: -Newcastle Journal)

More vegan products could also soon be on the Greggs menu but Mr Whiteside is remaining tight-lipped for now.

“There’s nothing I want to alert the market to yet but yes, we now have three vegan products with the award-winning bean wrap, winter warmer soup and sausage roll, and we have teams looking at other options.

“Sausage rolls sales have actually gone up. People have come in looking for the vegan sausage roll but if they can’t find one, they are tempted to buy something else, which is often a sausage roll.

“Me personally, I’m a classic sausage roll eater, although I do like this (vegan) one.”

Mr Whiteside’s comments came as Greggs upped its profit guidance and pledged to continue innovating, a week after the launch of its vegan sausage roll caused a stir.

The FTSE 250 firm now expects underlying pre-tax profits for the full 2018 financial year to be at least £88m, higher than the £86m previously guided.

This comes as sales over the 52 weeks to December 29 rose 7.2%, driven by growth in newer categories such as breakfast and vegan-friendly food as well as classic bakes.

Like-for-like sales at company-managed shops were up 2.9% across the year, with the fourth quarter accelerating to 5.2% as customers bought festive bakes and mince pies.

Mr Whiteside added that the performance reflected the company’s efforts to target the food-to-go market.

“In the year ahead, we will continue to innovate with products designed to reflect changing consumer tastes, and by opening in new locations that make Greggs even more accessible to customers,” he said.