Bakery group Greggs has said it is planning an expansion into Europe.

Greggs made the announcement as it unveiled a 24.2% rise in pre-tax profits to �32.7m last year.

Strong demand for takeover food helped push Greggs' turnover up by 11.4% to �377.6m, with sales in stores open at least 12 months up by 8.4%.

The firm said it was investing �38m this year in 50 new stores in the UK, and was planning to open its first store in mainland Europe.

"We have decided to experiment in Europe and learn about it as there is a good growth opportunity," managing director Mike Darrington said.

"We have been looking at a number of markets and the acceptability of our products is pretty high."

"We will go into a learning curve, get two or three open and learn and modify them."