Shares of Greggs, the Newcastle-based bakery and “food-on-the-go” retailer, rose about 8% after it said its sales rose 5.2% to £476 million in the 26 weeks to June 30.

Reported pre-tax profit including property profits and exceptional charges rose about 24% to £24.1 million.

“Greggs has delivered a resilient performance despite challenging market conditions and we have continued to make good progress with our strategic investment programme to transform the business into the customers’ favourite for food-on-the-go,” said Greggs CEO Roger Whiteside.

“While we remain cautious in respect of the outlook for sales in the balance of the year given the consumer backdrop, we are confident in the medium and long-term growth potential for the business, supported by customers’ response to our initiatives, our strong cash generation and the ongoing strategic investments that we are making. 

“Over the year as a whole we continue to believe that underlying profits (before exceptional costs) are likely to be at a similar level to 2017.”