Greggs finally reveals loyalty club

Pasty lovers will no longer have to scrabble for change to buy their favourite foods from Greggs after it finally unveiled its loyalty scheme, Greggs Rewards, an app-based programme which combines mobile payments with points.
The new app, devised in part by agency Steel London, is going live this week.
It is claimed to be the first entirely digital loyalty scheme launched by a UK food-on-the go retailer that eliminates the need for customers to carry a separate loyalty card or their wallet when they shop.
The company first revealed plans for the scheme in April last year but has spent the past 8 months developing the programme.
Designed to make shopping across its 1,700 shops more convenient, quicker and easier, customers can top up their accounts with any amount from £5-£50 using their debit/credit card or PayPal, allowing them to pay securely in-store with their smartphone.
Reward include a free Greggs’ breakfast when opening an account with at least £20, hot drink incentives, a birthday treat and a monthly prize draw for the chance to win an i-Pad when shopping using Greggs Rewards. Furthermore, PayPal is also giving the first 10,000 Greggs’ customers a free £5 bonus credit to spend when they sign up and register for auto-top up with PayPal.
Greggs chief executive Roger Whiteside said: “We’ve spent a lot of time talking to and listening to our customers and have found through extensive consumer testing in the run up to the launch, that a simple but rewarding scheme is something that they want to fit with their on-the-go lifestyles. We hope the app makes life a little easier whilst more rewarding for our customers.”
The move comes as the chain revealed a near-20% slump in pretax profits to £41.3m for the year ending December 28. However, this was in line with expectations, after a year in which trading was hit by competition and bad weather, as well as the cost of changes to the group’s strategy.