Bakery chain Greggs could soon be serving up is pies and pasties in Afghanistan after being recruited by forces caterer NAAFI to help foreign-based troops get a taste of home.
Following consultation with service men and women, NAAFI is running a trial that will see Greggs supplying frozen savouries to a base in Gutersloh, Germany.
Greggs’ Scots-born chief executive Ken McMeikan, a Royal Navy veteran of the Falklands War, said: “It’s great to hear that Greggs was the most requested brand that troops missed from home and we are really pleased to be making our savouries accessible to our troops in Germany, and, depending on the success of the trial, more widely available for our armed forces personnel around the world.”
NAAFI, a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1920, aims to give service men and women a taste of home wherever they are based around the world. It currently caters for British troops in Afghanistan, Ascension, Brunei, The Falkland Islands, Germany, Gibraltar and Northern Ireland, as well as on board Royal Navy Ships.
In Gutersloh, Greggs will be supplying a range of seven frozen savouries which will be baked throughout the day and displayed in a Greggs branded savoury counter.
The baker, which has 1,600 outlets in the UK, will be training NAAFI personnel to ensure the troops get the same quality and fresh savouries they would in a Greggs shop at home.
Mike Chapman, head of customer service for NAAFI, said “We are delighted to be able to bring customers the taste of home that they have been asking for. Greggs is one of the most popular brands on the UK high street for its iconic sausage rolls and pasties, and our customers want us to deliver that to them during their NAAFI break.”The trial will commence on 17 September and will run for 12 weeks. A decision on rolling out the concept more widely will be taken at the end of the trial.
