Greggs 2018 profit up 10 percent, 'very strong' start to 2019

LONDON (Reuters) - British baker and takeaway food group Greggs reported a 10 percent rise in 2018 profit and said it had made a "very strong" start to its new financial year.

Greggs said on Thursday it made an underlying pretax profit of 89.8 million pounds ($118.3 million) for the year to Dec. 29 - in line with company guidance of "at least" 88 million pounds and up from 81.8 million pounds made in 2017.

It said like-for-like sales in company managed shops rose 9.6 percent in the seven weeks to Feb. 16, boosted by publicity surrounding the launch of its vegan sausage roll.

(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)