Feeling the bite: is Greggs on a roll or is its expansion overbaked?

UK pastry chain has plans for two new factories and 800 more branches, despite sales falling in 2025 and analysts questioning brand’s direction

An enormous carpet of pastry snakes its way around the factory. Four huge metal urns of meat filling are waiting to be added. Workers in hairnets and overalls buzz about, checking a production line that holds 4.5 tonnes of pastry at any one time.

This is food production on an industrial scale, designed to satisfy the UK’s seemingly insatiable appetite for sausage rolls, vegan bites and other baked treats.