THE CITY'S pastry fans will rejoice when work has finally finished on a bigger Greggs bakery.
Work is ongoing at the moment to transform the former Pret A Manger cafe into the city's newest Greggs outlet.
The building has been gutted and carpenters can be seen inside the building as the new chain bakery starts to take shape.
There will be outdoor seating at the store with space for seven tables and 24 chairs for customers.
The smaller Greggs shop two doors down on the High Street will close its doors to make way for the bigger bakery.
There is another Greggs in The Shambles as well as another new bakery being built at Blackpole Retail Park too.
A spokeswoman for Greggs did not reveal the planned opening date but said: "We can confirm we are opening a Greggs on Worcester High Street later this year."
Pret A Manger announced it would be permanently shutting its High Street store in June 2020 as part of more than 30 closures across the country.
The sandwich and coffee chain blamed the closures on the covid lockdown hitting trade which resulted in sales plummeting by more than three quarters.
Last month, Greggs revealed its stores have rebounded to trade ahead of pre-pandemic levels but said it has been impacted by some disruption to labour and the supply of ingredients.
The bakery chain told investors that like-for-like sales increased by 3.5 per cent in the third quarter of the year, against the same period from 2019.
It said its full-year performance is therefore expected to surpass the company’s previous expectations.
In a statement, Greggs said: “Greggs has not been immune to the well-publicised pressures on staffing and supply chains, and we have seen some disruption to the availability of labour and supply of ingredients and products in recent months.
“Food input inflation pressures are also increasing – whilst we have short-term protection as a result of our forward-buying positions, we expect costs to increase towards the end of 2021 and into 2022.
“Operational cost control has been good and the strong sales performance in the third quarter gives us confidence as we move into the autumn.
“Subject to any unexpected Covid disruption, we expect the full-year outcome to be ahead of our previous expectations.”
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