Business news live: FTSE 100 results with Greggs facing ‘near-term hurdles’ and AstraZeneca profits surge

COMMENT: The popular high-street bakery now sells a million sausage rolls every day – but such wild success has caused alarm among key investors, who believe Greggs may be fast reaching saturation point.

Can it learn the lessons of the Seattle coffee chain before it also overreaches itself, asks James Moore?

Responding to the latest financial results, analysts have largely agreed that Greggs is facing some real short-term issues – but looks well-placed to ride out the storm.

New plans include a collaboration with Tescos, later opening hours and

“The company is continuing to look at diversifying its offering, however, perhaps to help remove some of those risks seen in its stores,” said Mamta Valechha, consumer discretionary analyst at Quilter.

“It announced this morning that it has signed a new contract with Tesco, which will see its ‘Bake at Home’ range on offer in the UK’s largest supermarket chain from September, building on the success the product range has had in Iceland.

“However, while these strategic initiatives are positive developments, the food on the go market remains tough with inflation biting into consumers’ wallets.”

Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, added:

“While these issues shouldn’t be overlooked, they appear to be well baked into the valuation now, and the longer-term investment case remains intact.

“Growth is a key focus for the group. The number of shops is set to rise to over 3,000 over the next few years, with management doubling down on its guidance to open between 140 and 150 new stores in 2025. Many of these stores will be open into the evening, which happens to be the group’s fastest-growing daypart.

“There’s a lot to like about Greggs’ proposition and long-term outlook. But in the near term, there are some hurdles for the nation’s most popular bakery to jump, so investors will need some patience if Greggs is to prove it’s worth its crust.”

Greggs has reported pre-tax profits of £63.5m for the half-year to the end of June – down 14 per cent compared to last year at the same time.

Warm weather was blamed for the downturn as well as domestic economic matters leaving people spending less in general.

Despite that, Greggs still plans to open well over 100 new shops this year and, over the longer term, has visions of opening more than 2,000 additional stores across the UK – bringing the total to over 4,500.

“After a challenging start to 2025 we remain clear on the strategic opportunities that lie ahead,” Chief Executive Roisin Currie said on a call.

Greggs’ share price has dropped more than 40 per cent this year so far.

Barclays have this morning announced a share buyback of £1bn and a half-year dividend of 3 pence per share, totalling £1.4bn in value returned to shareholders – a 21 per cent rise year on year.

That comes on the back of increased profits thanks to heightened market volatility during the Donald Trump tariff phase earlier this year.

Half-year pre tax profits totalled £5.2bn, beating expectations.

Shares are up more than a third this calendar year.

“We remain on track to achieve the objectives of our three-year plan, delivering structurally higher and more stable returns for our investors,” said CEO C. S. Venkatakrishnan in a statement.

Pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has reported profits increasing 13 per cent in this morning’s half-year financials.

Revenue rose to more than £28bn and the company has announced a 3 per cent rise of the interim dividend, to 76.7 pence per share.

“Our strong momentum in revenue growth continued through the first half of the year and the delivery from our broad and diverse pipeline has been excellent,” CEO Pascal Soriot said in a statement.

AstraZeneca recently pledged $50bn of investment into the US for a manufacturing facility in Virginia to push further growth.

On his trip to Scotland, Donald Trump has been extolling the virtues of drilling for oil and deriding wind power as an energy source.

James Alexander, CEO of UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF), said in response:

“Cheap wind and solar power have the potential to drive economic growth and jobs right across the country. Those who ignore the huge value of these rapidly expanding sectors are placing politics before economic opportunities.

“We can’t rely on our limited North Sea oil reserves to cut the cost of energy, as the international market dictates the prices. Instead, we need to rapidly roll out homegrown clean power alternatives, which will counter the threat of future fossil fuel crises.

“The government must ignore the naysayers and continue its efforts to attract crucial private investment into our renewable industries.”

Temu is not doing enough to assess the risks of illegal products being sold online and could be in breach of a new digital services law, the European Commission said.

The commission said on Monday that there was a “high risk” of consumers in the EU encountering illegal products on the e-commerce giant’s platform.

Specifically, analysis of a mystery shopping exercise conducted by the commission found that consumers shopping on Temu were very likely to find non-compliant products, including baby toys and small electronics.

The popular high-street bakery now sells a million sausage rolls every day – but such wild success has caused alarm among key investors, who believe Greggs may be fast reaching saturation point.

Can it learn the lessons of the Seattle coffee chain before it also overreaches itself, asks James Moore.

Good morning and welcome to our live business coverage – coming up today we’ll look at the firms reporting their latest profits and plans, how the FTSE 100 moves after a sharp downturn yesterday afternoon and plenty more besides.