Bakery chain Greggs has announced plans to open 100 new stores this year and create around 500 new jobs in the coming months.

Greggs has seen profits bounce back to higher than pre-pandemic levels and said it hopes to reach at least 3,000 stores nationwide.

The firm also revealed pre-tax profits of £55.5m for the 26 weeks to July 3, in comparison to a £65.2m loss for the same period last year. This is also a rise on the 2019 pre pandemic figure of £40.7m.

It added that like-for-like sales for the four weeks to the end of July were 0.4 per cent higher than the same period two years ago.

Greggs, with stores in Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud, Cirencester and Lydney told investors that it expects full-year profits to be "slightly ahead" of previous predictions.

Total sales reached £546.2m for the year to June, just shy of the £546.3m it posted for the same period in 2019 pre-pandemic.

Roger Whiteside, chief executive of Greggs said: "Greggs once again showed its resilience in a challenging first half, emerging from the lockdown months in a strong position and rebuilding sales as social restrictions were progressively relaxed.

"We continue to make good progress with our strategic priorities, growing the shop estate and investing in our digital capabilities to compete in all channels and parts of our market.

"Whilst there continue to be general uncertainties in the market, given our recent performance we now expect full-year profit to be slightly ahead of our previous expectation."