November 2022 by Mutlu Palalar
Greggs plc is a British bakery chain. It specialises in savoury products such as bakes, sausage rolls, sandwiches and sweet items including doughnuts and vanilla slices. It is headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Originally a high street chain, it has since entered the convenience and drive-thru markets, this achieved mainly through its partnership with EG Group.Greggs was founded by John Gregg as a Tyneside bakery in 1939. It opened its first shop in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1951. When Gregg died in 1964, the bakery was taken over by his son, Ian, assisted by his disgraced brother, Colin. Major expansion began soon after, including the acquisitions of other bakeries such as Glasgow-based Rutherglen in 1972, Leeds-based Thurston's in 1974, Broomfields the Bakers, London, Bowketts the Bakers in Kent, Tooks the Bakers (East Anglia) and Price's (Manchester) in 1976.In 1994, the company acquired the Bakers Oven chain of bakers' shops from Allied Bakeries. In 1999, Greggs rebranded its one hundred Braggs shops as Greggs of the Midlands, and its Leeds-based Thurston chain as Greggs of Yorkshire.In 2008, Greggs rebranded its 165 Bakers Oven shops as Greggs so they could benefit from its national advertising campaign. The company opened its 1,500th premises, in York, in 2011.In 2013, Greggs replaced its CEO Ken McMeikan with Punch Taverns CEO Roger Whiteside. McMeikan left the firm for Brake Bros.In 2013, Greggs began to transition out of the bakery market, reasoning that it couldn't compete with supermarkets on that front. Instead, the company switched to focusing solely on "food on the go" after discovering that 80% of its business was in that market. Many of its stores now open earlier and close later, in order to target those going to and coming back from work, expanding its breakfast menu, and discontinuing the sale of bread and scones in many of its stores.In 2014, the company requested help from Google when an image of the Greggs logo, altered to include a parodic fake slogan referring to the firm's customers as "scum", was presented in Google search results as the actual company logo ? falling afoul of imperfections in the "Google algorithm". The firm's lighthearted social media response, which included a tweet sent to Google's official Twitter account offering doughnuts in exchange for fixing the problem, was noted as a "lesson in Twitter crisis management".In 2016, Greggs moved their head office from Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne to Quorum Business Park, Longbenton, North Tyneside. In 2020, all shops closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.In 2022, Greggs opened its largest location in a Primark store in Birmingham. A queue formed outside the shop 30 minutes before the grand opening, with some people running under the barriers as they were opened. A collaborative clothing range, "Greggs X Primark", was also released. Wi?ipedia
