Bakery and hot food chain Greggs is preparing to open six new sites in the north, including four in Belfast, The Irish News can reveal.
The sausage roll specialist has significantly ramped up its expansion plans in Northern Ireland with two new sites opening last month.
The new outlets, which opened at Dungannon’s Oaks Centre and Belfast’s Forestside during the second half of October, have taken Greggs’ northern portfolio to 22 locations.
It followed the opening a third Greggs store in Bangor during the summer.
But the hot food chain is set to extend its network to 28 sites in the coming weeks and months, with four new stores in Belfast, a new drive-thru in Craigavon and the reopening of its short-lived outlet in Omagh.
Contractors are currently re-fitting out the site at Omagh’s Showgrounds Retail Park, which is due to reopen in December.
Greggs’ first ever store in Co Tyrone originally opened in February 2019, but closed during the first Covid-19 lockdown just 13 months later.
The company confirmed it would not be reopening the site during July 2020.
Despite a number of closures around the north since the pandemic, Greggs is now on an expansion drive.
Its four new sites in Belfast include CastleCourt, York Street, Titanic Quarter and Lisburn Road.
It will bring the Greggs’ portfolio in the city to 12.
Alongside its new unit at ‘The Edge’ student accommodation scheme next to the Ulster University campus, the company is recruiting for new units at the CastleCourt shopping centre and at the Arc Apartment complex in the Titanic Quarter.
Greggs has also secured planning permission to repurpose Michael Deane’s former Lisburn Road café bistro into a hot food takeaway.
Deane & Decano closed in August 2023 after trading for seven years, with the well-known chef citing rising rent, rates and staff costs.
The Lisburn Road unit is located just across the street from Yo Burger, which went on the market last month.
Meanwhile, Greggs has revealed its sales jumped by more than a 10th in recent weeks.
The hospitality group said it has opened more than 150 sites across the UK this year, taking its network to 2,560 outlets.
Last month, it launched its first champagne bar in which customers can pair the finest bottles with a menu of bakes and rolls.
It follows the first Greggs “fine dining” bistro last year, which served its popular festive bake alongside duck fat roasties, smoked pancetta, chestnuts and sprouts to more than 8,000 customers over a single month.
