Greggs says comfortable with 2008 profit forecasts

LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - British high-street bakery chain Greggs (GRG.L) is confident it can meet its own full-year profit forecast of 48.8 million pounds, outgoing Managing Director Michael Darrington said on Thursday.

"There is certainly a great deal of uncertainty around but we're comfortable with the forecasts (48.8 million of pretax profit) in the market for the full-year," Darrington told reporters on a conference call.

Earlier on Thursday Greggs posted a 5.1 percent rise in first-half like-for-like sales but half-year pretax profit fell 4.3 percent to 14.1 million pounds.

However, the baker said it was confident it would be able to cope with the uncertain consumer environment in the second half. (Reporting by Rhys Jones; Editing by Paul Bolding)