Bakery group Greggs toasted record half-year profits yesterday despite losing a day's business by closing during the Golden Jubilee weekend.

Managing director Mike Darrington said the group had made good progress and revealed it was set to open its first store in Europe later this year.

Greggs, based in Newcastle, hopes that will be in Belgium where it is looking at two or three other sites in the country.

"Belgium will be our first port of call. We have been working quite actively over there for three to four months," Mr Darrington said.

Greggs lost £500,000 of profits growth after deciding to close for a day to allow staff to join the Golden Jubilee celebrations in June.

But turnover rose by 13.2 per cent to £183m in the 24 weeks to June 15, with like-for-like sales, which exclude new stores, up by 7.6 per cent.

Further strong growth in sandwiches and savoury ranges fuelled the performance as sales of bread and rolls declined once more.

Greggs has focused on building up its ranges of takeaway food and has rolled out a new format to 212 locations to highlight a host of new snack products.

Pre-tax profits across the business, which also owns Bakers Oven, rose 13.4 per cent to £10.8m, its best interim performance ever.

"The shops were closed for the day so the staff could have a day off for the jubilee. It was the right thing to do," said Mr Darrington.

"We are very pleased with the first half performance, and we have made a solid start to the second half."

Sales in the six weeks since the half-year rose 6.8 per cent on a like-for-like basis, but Greggs expects the growth to slow in the coming months.

The group said comparisons with a year ago will become tougher due to the strong sales growth in the latter part of last year.

Greggs runs 1,168 shops in the UK and hopes to add 50 in the current year. It wants to have 1,700 sites in business by the end of 2008.

Mr Darrington said that expansion overseas would be limited for the next 18 months as the group judges the success of its foray into Belgium.

The first store in the country will sell a combination of Greggs' traditional range, as well as products from the local market.

Shareholders will receive an interim dividend of 23.5p per share, up 11 per cent.