19th Feb 2019 07:58
LONDON (Alliance News) - Baker Greggs PLC on Tuesday reported a strong start to 2019, with sales boosted by its new vegan sausage roll, meaning it is likely to beat profit expectations for the year.
For the seven weeks to February 16, Greggs' sales increased 14% year-on-year. On a like-for-like basis, company-managed shop sales rose 9.6%.
This "exceptionally strong" start builds on what Greggs said was a good finish to 2018, and has been helped by "extensive" publicity around its vegan sausage roll, which was launched at the start of January.
"As a result, customer transaction numbers have increased, with additional sales mainly comprising savoury products such as the vegan-friendly sausage roll and our other iconic sausage rolls and bakes," said Greggs.
Growth eased slightly in February, Greggs did say, but so strong was early trading there is likely to be a "materially" positive impact on first half 2019 results.
This will be helped by a weaker comparable due to extreme weather.
As a result, the baker continued, underlying pretax profit for 2019 is likely to beat expectations.
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