Britain's Greggs says February trading dented by storms

LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - British baker Greggs said on Tuesday it made a very strong start to 2020 in January but saw a significant slowdown in February due to widespread storms that kept shoppers away.

The group said company-managed shop like-for-like sales rose 7.5% in the nine weeks to Feb. 29, having risen 9.2% in 2019.

Greggs also cautioned there is some uncertainty in the outlook, particularly given the potential impact of coronavirus.

It said 2019 pretax profit excluding exceptional items rose 27.2% to 114.2 million pounds ($146 million), ahead of analysts' expectations.

($1 = 0.7822 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)