Greggs poised to beat forecasts

HIGH Street baker Greggs is set to beat City profit forecasts when it publishes figures this week.

The chain, with more than 1,200 outlets, was hit by last summer's heatwave as workers who normally shopped at Greggs for their lunches stayed away.

But the company, which owns the Bakers Oven chain, saw sales bounce back strongly in the autumn and at Christmas. Like-for-like sales were up 2.2% for the second half.

Now, insiders reckon that on Friday Greggs is likely to report pre-tax profits for 2003 of more than £40 million -comfortably ahead of the £38 million expected by analysts. The dividend could now rise by 10% to 80p.