Iced lattes, picnic food and a bigger range of salads helped Greggs battle the heatwaves this year as its boss admitted people “eat less” when temperatures soar.

The chain of 2,773 bakeries revealed its sales increased over the first half of 2026 while its expansion across the UK continued.

Roisin Currie, Greggs’ chief executive, told the Press Association: “You do see that when temperatures get above 30 degrees that people start to eat less.

“We’ve been much more resilient this year than previously because we learned some lessons.”

This has involved adapting its menu to follow consumer food trends and attract new customers, including products such as iced matcha lattes and the chicken roll launched in April as an alternative to the sausage and vegan rolls.

It has also been expanding its range of salads with new and reformulated recipes designed to have more protein, and ensuring labelling has clearer nutritional information, in a bid to tap into a growing cohort of health-conscious consumers.

Ms Currie said Greggs was focused on “keeping it exciting for customers” with new products such as a blueberry matcha iced latte within the drinks range that was appealing particularly to younger consumers.

“We had also just launched, before the heatwave started to hit, a new range of salads, with some favourites in there but also some new products such as our prawn-layered pasta salad and our chicken caesar along with our grains and green salad,” she said.

“The timing of those was great and they have sold well.”

Customers have also been picking out products such as fruit pots, yoghurts and wraps in the hot weather, as well as picnic food such as packs of sausage rolls which are sold ambient, according to the boss.

“But the customer also wants that indulgent treat every so often,” Ms Currie told PA.

“So we do still see that while health is very important, actually indulgence is also a trend that’s out there – customers want that sweet treat, not every day but when they want to treat themselves.”

The bakery chain revealed that total sales topped £1.1 billion for the 26 weeks to June 27, which was 7.2% higher than the same period a year ago.

This was largely driven by the opening of 34 shops on a net basis.

Stripping out the impact of the new shops, sales at company-managed shops were 2.1% higher compared with the same ones last year, and 1.3% higher at franchised shops.

The retailer’s pre-tax profit jumped by a fifth to £76 million for the half-year period, which it said was partly due to launching its “bake at home” frozen range in Tesco, adding to an existing partnership with Iceland Foods.

It also comes from efforts to control business costs in the face of energy and food inflation and rising wages.

The update sent shares in the company up by more than 15% on Wednesday.

Greggs said overall cost inflation over the first half of the year was 2.2% and it expects around this level for the rest of the year.

This is lower than the approximately 3% inflation that it was anticipating in April.

“The volatility of the Middle East and the impact on energy prices probably plays into what may happen towards the back end of this year and into 2027,” Ms Currie told PA.

“One of the key costs that we’ve got is wages, so that does hit us because that is an inflationary environment.”

But she said costs for ingredients such as coffee and cocoa which had spiked last year had started to come down.

Ms Currie also stressed that Greggs had no further price rises planned after its breakfast, lunch and “big” deals went up in May.

“Our prices are in a good place and we will now be working hard to protect the consumer and making sure that we can offer that value throughout the yest of the year,” she said.

Greggs is continuing to expand across the UK with an expected 100 to 110 net new openings throughout 2026, many of which are in new locations with no Greggs shop within a mile.

It has said its assessment of areas where Greggs are “underrepresented”, such as travel hubs, retail parks, roadsides and industrial parks, means there is an opportunity to reach at least 3,500 shops across the UK in the long term.

The retailer is also trialling a Greggs Express format which involves self-service units with a smaller range of food items and drinks located within petrol stations, with 10 expected to be opened by the end of the year.