Greggs vegan sausage roll hit by supply chain disruption

Greggs has admitted that its vegan sausage rolls are being hit by supply chain disruption.

The bakery chain had already acknowledged that it was not immune to the economy-wide problems getting goods to shelves, but boss Roger Whiteside declared last month that “the sausage roll is safe”.

But now, in response to a query from the Reuters news agency, it has said that “temporary interruptions” to supplies across the UK included vegan sausage rolls.

“Some shops may not have them or may not have them throughout the day. It varies,” a spokesperson said, adding that Greggs was working hard to minimise disruption and offered a broad range of other snacks.

The vegan sausage roll, with Quorn filling, was launched in 2019 and has become a popular meat-free alternative to the chain’s traditional sausage rolls or steak and chicken bakes.

Supply chain disruption has taken its toll across the economy, with the impacts of COVID-19 and Brexit blamed for shortages of lorry drivers to transport goods around as well as workers in meat processing factories.

It has led to reduced availability of some products from supermarkets such as Morrisons to fashion retailers including Primark as well as chicken shortages at Nando’s.

Greggs, which has recovered well after trading was severely disrupted during pandemic lockdowns, first acknowledged in August that it was feeling the impact of the crisis with some products containing chicken missing from shelves.

Last month, speaking after the company issued its latest trading update, Mr Whiteside said: “I wake up every morning and I find out what’s short that day because something has been disrupted… there’s some different thing going on every day, with some different item.”

But he added that “the sausage roll is safe, that’s one thing we haven’t gone short of”.

However, Reuters reported that it had spotted a number of stores in London that were out of vegan sausage rolls in the first half of this week.