Controversial the posh bakery chain may be, no one can deny that Gail’s has been getting that dough. It’s thought that the company, which opened its first branch in Hampstead in 2005, is now worth a whopping £500 million. So, it only makes sense that is has ambitions to open in even more locations over the next 12 months.
Gail’s boss Tom Molnar has revealed plans to open 30-40 new bakeries across the UK in 2025. It currently has 152 stores (its milestone 150th opened in Watford in October) and this month opened its first ever train station branches at London’s St Pancras and London Bridge stations. To keep the new stores in check and hit its sales target of £300 million, Gail’s plans to hire 1,000 new members of staff.
Molnar told the Times that the chain has been able to grow rapidly thanks to ‘lots of empty sites on the high street’, most of which are old banks. He added: ‘You get really attractive deals [from landlords]. That’s been really fundamental to us.’
Not all residents have been happy about Gail’s opening in their neighbourhoods, though. In the summer people in Walthamstow started a petition against getting their own branch of the bakery and last month, locals in Primrose Hill began campaigning to keep it out. The CEO has also warned that the (already upmarket) prices at Gail’s may have to go up following the rise in employer national insurance contributions.
Nothing has been revealed about where the new Gail’s bakeries might be, but watch this space for updates.
Time Out on the high street
There’s a bunch of other new openings to look forward to as we go into 2025. Nando’s is opening 14 new restaurants, Caffé Nero is opening cafés in John Lewis and Waitrose shops across the UK, Aldi is launching 30 new supermarkets, Sephora plans to launch 20 new UK stores and UNIQLO opened its first Scottish outlet.
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