Greggs Steak & Stilton bake becomes its second-biggest launch after 500,000 sold

A Greggs steak pastry filled with one of the country’s most divisive cheeses has been given a huge vote of confidence by the high street chain’s customers.

The bakery giant says its new Steak & Stilton bake has become its second-biggest launch ever, with half a million of the pastries sold during their first week on sale.

Greggs revealing that only a tiny proportion were returned by customers, who decided they had made a mistake.

Because blue-veined Stilton has a reputation as a ‘love it or hate it’ cheese, the Newcastle-based retailer had given customers an unusual get-out clause as part of an advertising gamble surrounding the launch.

Anyone who tried the new bake and decided it wasn’t to their taste, could swap it for a standard Steak Bake at no.

But just 0.4% of the Steak & Stilton bakes that were sold, got the ‘thumbs down’ and were returned, according to Greggs.

The pastry combines diced beef in gravy with blue Stilton cheese and grilled onions, wrapped in puff pastry and finished with a black-pepper crumb.

Despite the retailer’s trepidation over how well it would go down, it has turned out to be second only to the hugely popular Festive Bake in terms of launch sales.

Greggs previously offered a Stilton-flavoured bake seven years ago, but the latest version appears to have found a much bigger audience.

Zoe Harris, customer director at Greggs, said: “The debate around Stilton is clearly far from over, but we gave the nation a get-out clause and almost nobody used it.

“With hundreds of thousands of bakes sold in just one week and just 0.4% returned, it’s clear that plenty of customers were willing to take a chance on Stilton.”

The figures suggest that while Stilton may still divide opinion, customers have been prepared to give the strong-flavoured cheese a try when combined with one of Greggs’ familiar savoury pastries.

Stilton is a distinctive British blue cheese, recognisable by the bluish-green veins running through it.

The cheese gets its characteristic appearance and flavour as it matures, with Penicillium roqueforti mould cultivated through the cheese.

There are strict rules governing what can be sold as Stilton, and the cheese can only be made in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire or Leicestershire.

For Greggs, the response to its latest bake launch has been a little unexpected, given their acknowledgement that the new Steak & Stilton bakes might not be to everyone’s taste.

However, with more than 500,000 sold in its first seven days, it has now secured a place among the retailer’s biggest-ever launches.