Greggs was founded in the 1930s by John Gregg with a single shop in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. Major expansion began soon after it was taken over by his son, Ian, on his death in 1964 which has included the acquisitions of other bakeries such as Leeds based Thurstons and Manchester based Price's in 1972. The company has grown steadily over the years and now has in excess of one thousand outlets and many town and city centres have multiple numbers of stores. Newcastle itself has ten stores in its city centre, whilst Sunderland has nine Greggs, and in Leeds City Centre there are eleven stores. It has a divisional structure with central bakeries around the country supplying the shops in their surrounding areas. Turnover for the 53 weeks ended 1 January2006 was £550.8 million, with pre-tax profits of £40.2 million and post-tax profits of £27.0 million.
As well as selling British freshly baked savouries such as sausage rolls and Cornish pasties, local items are also available. Traditional Tyneside and, more generally, North East England foods are usually available, for example the Stottie. The available products are frequently updated and change according to the time of year. For example at Halloween various themed products are available.
Actress and model Milla Jovovich is a well-known fan of the store and its pasties,[1] and has gone on record to say she would be willing to become the "face of Greggs" in a new marketing campaign if the firm approached her, though no such approach has yet been made.[2]
In 2003, in an attempt to test the foreign market, Greggs opened four stores in Belgium; principally in Antwerp and Leuven.[3]
Greggs rebranded its 100 Braggs bakers shops as Greggs of the Midlands and its Leeds-based Thurston chain as Greggs of Yorkshire.[4] One of their first shops was the small bakery in Codsall in the Midlands.
The retail bakery Bakers Oven is also part of Greggs.
As of the end of July 2008, Sir Michael Darrington will retire from his position as group managing director. In his place will be the current J Sainsbury PLC retail director Ken McMeikan.
Marketing
Greggs now uses the advertising slogan 'Ready when you are' replacing previous slogans such as 'Got To Get To Greggs'. They have recently have announced that current CEO Ken McMeikan will replace Patrick Mcguiness as the face of Greggs. Ken found success in fronting adverts at Christmas that were shown to Sainsbury's employees in an attempt to boost morale.[5]
