31st Jul 2018 09:10
LONDON (Alliance News) - Greggs PLC said Tuesday it has delivered a "resilient performance" in the first half of the year despite challenging market conditions, registering both revenue and profit growth.
Greggs shares were trading up 9.3% at 1,051.00 pence early Tuesday, making the bakery the second best performer of the FTSE 250 index.
For the six months to June 30, the UK food-on-the-go firm's total sales increased 5.2% to GBP476 million, with the impact of the severe weather conditions at the beginning of the year on customer footfall being the "most significant factor affecting the first-half performance".
The company described its half-year performance as "resilient", with pretax profit up to GBP24.1 million from GBP19.4 million.
Greggs experienced continued growth in developing categories such as hot drinks, breakfast, healthier choices, and hot food options, it said.
The company has lifted its interim dividend by 3.9% to 10.7 pence per share.
Greggs, which operates across some 1,888 stores, opened 59 new shops during the six-month period while it closed 25. It expects to open around 100 new shops for the year as a whole, it said.
"Greggs has delivered a resilient performance despite challenging market conditions and we have continued to make good progress with our strategic investment programme to transform the business into the customers' favourite for food-on-the-go," Chief Executive Roger Whiteside said.
Despite the six months of growth, Greggs said it remains cautious in respect of its full-year sales outlook on the back of a difficult consumer background in the UK. It believes adjusted profit for the year will be "at a similar level" to 2017, when it reported pretax profit of GBP81.8 million.
The bakery retailer however, said it is confident in the medium and long-term growth potential of its business.
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