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Greggs profit beats forecasts

Bakery and sandwich chain Greggs saw full-year profits come in slightly better than expected and said it is well placed to achieve a year of further progress in 2010.

Pre-tax profit came to £48.8m the 53 weeks ended 2 January 2010, from £49.47m the year before. The market consensus for pre-tax profit was £46.43m.

Sales increased to £658m from £628m last time, including a 1.5% contribution from the 53rd week. Expectations were for an advance to £655.58m. Like-for-like sales increased by 0.8%.

In the ten weeks to 13 March total sales have increased by 2.8% and like-for-like sales by 0.8%.

The board recommends an increased final dividend of 11.4 pence per share (2008: 10.0 pence), this makes a total for the year of 16.6 pence (2008: 14.9 pence).

'Given the uncertain outlook for consumer spending in the current year, we considered it sensible to plan for like-for-like sales growth to be marginally positive, and to manage our costs so that they remain consistent with this challenging trading environment,' said chairman Derek Netherton.

'We look forward to bringing the unique Greggs combination of freshness, quality, taste and value to many more consumers as our expansion programme gains pace, and believe that we are well placed to achieve a year of further progress in 2010.'

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