Our History

We've come a long way. Look around our family tree to see how we've grown over the years.

• 1930s John Gregg opens a yeast and eggs business, giving families in the Newcastle area a friendly, bicycle-based delivery service.
• 1951 John opens his first small bakery in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. With a single shop and bakery at the rear, we start baking superb bread. Using flour milled from specially selected wheat, our distinctive taste and texture quickly becomes a neighbourhood favourite.
• 1953 Growing in confidence we make an impressive 69 pounds, 15 shilling and sixpence profit this year. And, as a reward, we pay our bakery manager a generous 12 pounds a week.
• 1964 John Gregg dies. His son, Ian, takes over the family business, which now has a turnover of £70,000 and 15 staff. Under Ian's leadership, we develop an even bigger reputation for good quality and great value. We also grow, buying bakeries across the North West.
• 1972 With our ambition driving us on, we move into Scotland – rebranding an established bakery chain as Greggs of Rutherglen. Next, we open Greggs of Yorkshire after buying Thurstons. And introduce Greggs of Manchester after buying the Manchester-based Price's bakery.
• 1983 Ian Gregg steps down as MD, and gives Michael Darrington the reins.
• 1984 With expansion well underway around the country including, for the first time, the Midlands, Wales and North London, we become a listed company on the Stock Exchange.
• 1987 We start our own charity, the Greggs Trust (we'll later call it the Greggs Foundation), to support communities near where we work.
• 1990s The supermarkets start to make their mark in baking. But we simply focus on our strengths, developing fresh, quality food-on-the-go at great value prices.
• 1994 We buy the nationwide Bakers Oven chain, with its 424 shops, to take our total to around 930 by the end of the year.
• 1998 Expanding at a fantastic rate, we break through the thousand barrier, open our 1,072nd shop, and announce to the Stock Exchange that our turnover reached £291 million.
• 2000s We just keep on growing as a family and also invest in a large Technical Centre. In it, our food experts focus on improving old favourites and developing exciting new recipes. All of which means we can say that the quality and choice of freshly baked food in our shops is now better than ever.
• 2007 We open our first late-night store in Birmingham, ready to satisfy hundreds of hungry customers until 3.30am.
• 2008 Kennedy McMeikan takes over from Sir Michael Darrington as our Chief Executive.
• 2009 We announce plans to open over 500 new shops across the country.
• 2010 With over 1,500 shops, we still bake our delicious bread every day in our own local bakeries. But although we're a national business, we're rooted in our local communities. Which is why, as well as a national menu, we also sell many much-loved regional delicacies.