The story of Greggs is amazing…
Founded by John Gregg as a Tyneside bakery in 1939. It opened its first shop in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1951.
When John Gregg died in 1964, the bakery was taken over by his son, Ian Gregg (who wrote a book about Greggs in 2013), assisted by his brother, Colin Gregg.
Major national expansion began soon after, including the acquisitions of other bakeries across the country such as Rutherglen, Thurston’s, Broomfields, Bowketts, Tooks and Price’s.
In August 1999, Greggs rebranded its one hundred Braggs shops as Greggs of the Midlands, and its Leeds based Thurston chain as Greggs of Yorkshire.
Earlier (in 1994) Greggs acquired the Bakers Oven chain from Allied Bakeries, and rebranded all 165 stores into Greggs in 2008, so all stores could benefit from Gregg’s national advertising campaigns.
In 2013, Greggs began to transition out of the bakery market with the reasoning that it couldn’t compete with supermarkets. Instead, switching solely to the “food on the go” market.
This meant changing stores to open earlier and close later, to target people going to and coming back from work, whilst discontinuing the sale of bread and scones and expanding its breakfast menu.
The company today…
In 2019, the chain had over 2,000 outlets with nine regional bakeries that make products local to each area, employing 22,000 people.
Greggs also sells some of its products – such as bakes, melts, and pasties – through the supermarket chain Iceland, and have recently set up their first supermarket hot food concession trial with ASDA.
Its best-selling product is still the sausage roll, selling 2 million units a week. In January 2019, Greggs launched a vegan sausage roll with great success, resulting in sales topping £1bn for the first time.
Greggs never stand still and are always innovating…
In September 2011, Greggs opened its first Greggs Moment, a 104-seater coffee shop and grew this to 5 outlets by 2013, before closing the operation down to concentrate their ‘food to go’ concept.
Then in October 2016, Greggs announced it would be launching a delivery service on a trial basis, with plans to implement it nationwide if the trial proved to be successful.
Following this, in 2017, Greggs opened their first drive thru, in Salford. Three further outlets have since opened in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Blackburn, and Newcastle.
Greggs have also created a strategic relationship with Blackburn based Euro Garages, who has established itself as one of the UK’s fastest growing forecourt operators, with an expanding portfolio of around 4500 sites, and have recently purchased ASDA from Walmart for $6.8 billion.
What can our office technology and supplies company learn from Greggs?
- It takes time, determination, and risk to grow a successful company
- Consider acquisitions in strategic locations
- Pivot when your product’s marketplace is being squeezed
- Create your own niche market, with no or little competition
- Experiment with new products or formats, even if they don’t work
- Strike up the right strategic relationships
