UK's Greggs profit rises on product range and store expansion

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - British baker Greggs (Stuttgart: 41G1.SG - news) on Tuesday met forecasts with a 2 percent rise in 2017 profit, helped by extensions to its product ranges and a net 90 new store openings.

The Newcastle, northern England, based firm, which is transforming itself from a traditional bakery business into a broader takeaway food retailer, said the UK consumer outlook remained challenging but it was encouraged by the start it had made to the new year.

Greggs said it made a pretax profit before one off items of 81.8 million pounds ($114.3 million) for the year to Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) . 30 2017 - in line with analysts' expectations and compared to 80.3 million pounds in 2016.

It said like-for-like sales rose by 3.2 percent in the eight weeks to Feb. 24. ($1 = 0.7158 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Costas Pitas)