SHARES in Greggs slid by almost 9% as the high street bakery chain warned profits for the year were likely to come in below market expectations.

The UK's biggest high street baker, which has around 240 shops in Scotland, cited poor weather in January and March as like-for-like sales in its own stores slumped 4.4% in the 17 weeks to April 27.

The company, which employs 2800 staff between its retail and baking operations north of the Border, said the performance reflected a trend of falling footfall across much of its estate.

It has refocused its store opening programme to mitigate the trend by moving beyond the high street into workplaces and travel and leisure destinations.

Greggs' partnership with Moto Hospitality has seen it open 16 stores in motorway service stations, where the outlets are run on a franchise basis. Six units in Moto locations opened in the 17-week period reported yesterday.

Greggs said the decline in footfall had been partly offset by an increase in average transaction value.

Although sales of promotional items were strong, as the company sought to relieve the pressure on consumer confidence, the trend was said to have had an effect on margins. The company expects this sales pattern to continue and plans to invest further in multi-product deals.

Greggs noted it had improved in the final two weeks of the period, pointing to a underlying rate of decline of 1.5% on a same store basis.

However, this figure compares with a soft period of trading in 2012 when the weather was especially wet.

With underlying market conditions not expected to improve in the short term, Greggs warned: "Although we are only four months into the year, based on current own shop like-for-like performance we believe that profits for the year are likely to be slightly below the lower end of the range of market expectations."

Analysts are understood to be forecasting pre-tax profits of between £47.5 mil-lion and £55.2m for the year ended December 28, 2013.

Greggs said in statement: "The business is focused on continuing with our plans to invest in core sales performance while taking action to reduce costs."

Greggs, which appointed ex-Punch Taverns and Thresher Group boss Roger Whiteside as chief executive on February 4, said total sales were up 3% in the 17-week period. Its wholesale and franchise activities contributed to 2.9% to overall sales growth.

The period saw it extend its range of "bake at home" products in Iceland stores, and the firm said it planned to further develop its activities in the wholesale channel.

Between new openings and store closures, Greggs boosted its portfolio by a net 10 outlets over the period, and carried out 59 refurbishments, in line with plans to refit a total of 250 this year.

Its portfolio stood at 1681 units at April 27 after the opening of 18 new stores and eight closures. Greggs' focus is now expected to look to store refurbishments rather than on new openings.

The firm said: "Overall profits have been affected in the first quarter of the year and are behind our plan and last year. The business remains highly cash-generative and maintains a strong balance sheet."

Greggs shares closed down 39.8p, or 8.61%, to 422.7p.