Shares in Greggs, the high street bakery retailer, fell by 43.5p yesterday - after the City reacted to the company’s fall in profits in 2012.

The BB75 company closed the day at 480p after it saw pre-tax profits fall by 2.2% in 2012 to £51.9m - despite seeing an increase in sales as it moved into new channels such as wholesale and franchising.

The results were labelled “unsurprisingly disappointing” by one City analyst, although new chief executive Roger Whiteside said that last year did not mark a “new normal” for the company and that its trading had been hit by the worst weather for 100 years.

In 2013 the company is to slow down its new openings and focus more on shop refurbishments in its core estate.