When Hip-Hop doyenne Missy Elliot sampled the Ann Peebles classic “I Can’t Stand the Rain” for her 1997 breakthrough hit “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)”, it’s unlikely she knew that one day it would become the unofficial theme tune for Greggs.

Whether the platinum selling rap star enjoys a pasty or not is unconfirmed, but the song chimes perfectly with Greggs blaming the wet weather for another dip in like for like sales - for the third time in a row.

No matter that blistering sunshine and steak bakes have never gone hand in hand, or that rainy days are perfectly paired with a piping hot pasty… or perhaps that should be a ‘freshly baked and left to cool naturally’ pasty?

Either way, Greggs watches the skies like a nervous Brit planning a BBQ. And just like Missy, Greggs can’t stand the rain.

Back in May the sausage roll specialist said the “exceptionally wet weather,” had contributed to a 1.8% dip in like for like sales. By August its 2.3% fall was “particularly impacted by the record levels of rainfall”. And today it went for broke, suggesting “flooding in parts of the country at the end of September,” as a factor in the 2.6% sales slump at its 1,641 shops up and down the UK.

In its defence, Greggs argues that it is not about what we fancy for lunch on a miserable day, but about the fact that shoppers are put off nipping out to pick up lunch at the high street baker if it’s raining. It’s a fair point.

But rainy days in the UK are not a new phenomenon. Sadly, we are famous for them. So speaking to Greggs CEO Ken McMeikan today, The Grocer asked if it was wise for a British business to be in any way reliant on the British weather?

“Snow and rain is one thing we will always have in this country,” conceded McMeikan. “But this year we have experienced the worst rainfall for 100 years - it has been a one off. I hope that next year I won’t be reporting the worst rainfall for a year.”

Greggs shareholders will no doubt agree.

But, freakish weather or not, pinning the blame on the rain does mean that if next summer does turn out to be three months of glorious sunshine, Greggs will need to have sales to match. Or else it will need something else to blame.

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