Cake Box Holdi. Share News (CBOX)

(Sharecast News) - Cake Box reported a rise in first-half revenues on Monday amid new store openings, as it backed its expectations for the year.
In an update for the six months to the end of September, the company - which makes egg-free fresh cream cakes - said revenues for the period are expected to be up around 6% to £8.8m compared to the first half of last year. Like-for-like sales in existing franchise stores were up 6.9% and Cake Box said it was confident about meeting current full-year market expectations.

During the period, it added nine new franchise stores, bringing the total number of stores to 122. Recent store openings included Dartford, Derby Central and Slough Central. In addition, three new franchise stores are expected to open imminently and post the period end.

Cake Box said the new store pipeline remains "strong" and it's on track to achieve its store opening target for the year.

Co-founder and chief executive officer Sukh Chamdal said: "We have continued with our new store roll-out, opening nine in the period. This was slightly lower than the comparative period last year, however we already have a further three stores fitted-out and once the final legal processes are completed will be open for trading and so will be recognised in the second half.

"With a strong pipeline of new stores to meet our opening targets and a number of other developments underway to improve the Cake Box proposition, we remain confident in our prospects for the full year and beyond."

At 1005 BST, the shares were down 4.1% at 163p.