UK bakery chain Greggs cuts profits forecast
UK bakery chain Greggs today blamed weather-hit sales and rising costs for its decision to cut £3m (€3.8m) from full-year profit forecasts.
Greggs, which has 1,400 outlets in the UK, said increases in energy and ingredient costs were not passed on in full to customers.
It said poor weather throughout August and early September caused like-for-like sales growth to slow to 3.9% in the 16 weeks to October 4, although sales since mid-September picked up to show growth of 5.7%.
Analysts had been expecting a pre-tax profits haul of around £48m (€60.5m) for the year to the end of December.
Greggs said: “As a consequence of the period of slower sales growth and temporary margin impact from higher costs we are reducing our expectations of operating profit for the current financial year by some £3m (€3.8m).”
