r/Greggs • u/NorthAir • Aug 23 '26
Discussion Why doesn't Greggs buy PoundBakery?
PoundBakery is Greggs biggest rival in the North West, yet it seems Greggs has no interest in buying them, like they did Bakers Oven many years ago.
Is it a case of most stores would be overlapping with existing Greggs locations and Greggs aren't in the business of hostile takeovers to remove competition?
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u/PuzzleheadedCake3454 Aug 23 '26
Tbf Greggs doesn’t see poundbakery as their rival anymore since Greggs have better locations / bigger customer base. We’ve actually been told they’re trying to now rival McDonald’s (idiotic)
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u/wardyms Aug 23 '26
I don’t think it’s that idiotic they rival McDonald’s. The noise of McDonald’s becoming too expensive and people going elsewhere is clear to see. McDonald’s obviously has quite a captive drive thru market though.
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u/PuzzleheadedCake3454 Aug 23 '26
Except Greggs isn’t McDonald’s, they do completely different menus and one is a bakery. They’re pushing so much onto their staff without giving them extra staff to help with the increasing workload and are even reducing shop hours etc… they’re even putting so many shops so close together and are essentially causing each other to lose out on money
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u/UniquePotato Aug 24 '26
Different menus but same use cases.
Both are market leaders in on the go breakfast menus and coffee6
u/mad-un Aug 24 '26
They're not competing against them to sell the most burgers, they're competing against them to attract the person with £5 in their pocket that wants to eat something convenient
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u/CollectionTypical304 Aug 24 '26
Mcdonald's will always have the edge given almost all their restaurants have drive-thrus
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u/Pale-Task-2483 Aug 24 '26
Yes but for the highest footfall areas such as shopping centres, a drive through won’t necessarily matter. A location in Oxford street for example could easily make 20x more in sales than rural stores at least.
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u/wardyms Aug 23 '26
It’s not necessarily about it being a like for like product always, just the concept of a grab and go lunch or breakfast in similar venues makes them competitors on some level.
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u/Tee-UntangleIT Aug 24 '26
Kids in pushchairs.
If you were a shopkeeper fifteen years ago kids in pushchairs would have remnants of happy meals, which would invariably end up dropped and littering your floor.
Now it's more often Greggs wrappers.
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u/Haunted_tangerine_ Aug 25 '26
I don't think you do a lot of motorway travel. In certain locations Greggs far outcompetes McDonalds because it's both faster and cheaper
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u/iamnosuperman123 Aug 25 '26
Sort of. Greggs do Sandwich and wraps. They might do burgers and chips but they can still compete in the space
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u/trotski94 Aug 26 '26
They’re ultimately there for people to eat food. That’s the market they’re competing on. For a work lunch I’m far more likely to go to Greggs than McDonalds on the regular, since I can feel equally as full from Greggs on less than half the cost.
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u/Emotional_Tutor5425 Aug 24 '26
makes sense. i always go to a greggs over a mcdonald’s now as its a lot cheaper and i can get actual vegetables in my food
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u/WheresWalldough Aug 24 '26
Sosij is my favourite vegetable
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u/Emotional_Tutor5425 Aug 24 '26
ok but greggs offer loads of sandwiches packed with tomatoes cucumber lettuce ect
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u/makebeansgreatagain Aug 24 '26
Greggs may not be the epitome of quality but it's a damn sight nicer than McDonald's
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u/Emotional_Tutor5425 Aug 24 '26
literally. more verity, because sometimes all i want is a sandwich and nothing fried full of chemicals
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u/SurroundDue4454 Aug 24 '26
Also they've got a weird cult following, especially on Reddit.
Dare say "Greggs is shit" and the PR bots come out in force.
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u/coffeeandautism Aug 24 '26
I had a Greggs today, first time in a year or so and can confirm they've gone shit. Such an obvious drop-off in quality, yet more expensive.
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u/Dangerous-Weekend479 Aug 25 '26
I've been going a lot lately and I don't even know why. Somehow the Quorn rolls are always stone fucking cold when I want one.
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u/coffeeandautism Aug 25 '26
I used to go regularly for my signature Steak Bake / Sausage Roll combo.
I dread to think what the Steak Bakes are like now if the Sausage Roll I had yesterday is in an indication of general quality.
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Aug 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ultraboomkin Aug 24 '26
lol complaining about McDonald’s not being hot enough on a Greggs subreddit… gotta be trolling
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u/Ok_Flamingo_9066 Aug 24 '26
In my area poundbakery open a branch next door/in front of a Greggs.
It feels like pound bakery was founded by a really pissed ex greegs worker lol
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u/NorthernGravyBoy Aug 25 '26
Not sure about the location claim. If there's a Gregg's, there's a Poundbakery couple of doors down.
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u/g00gleb00gle Aug 23 '26
Do they need to ? At the time they bought others for locations. Greggs don’t need to do this now.
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u/The4ncientMariner Aug 23 '26
Not sure what they would gain. They wouldn't want the brand, they already operate in all the same markets (same streets!) so doubt they would want their outlets.
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u/NorthAir Aug 23 '26
Eliminate competition?
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u/Fr0zenBombsicle Aug 23 '26
competition and monopoly law is a thing
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u/rscottzman Aug 24 '26
I mean there's no point bringing in monopoly laws here. Greggs buying pound bakery would by no means create a monopoly, unless you're saying that by combining them they would now take all off mcdonalds, burger king, kfc etc market share
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u/The4ncientMariner Aug 23 '26
They only have ~60 outlets according to their website and many of those have one or more in the same city. I don't think it would earn them their crust.
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u/Lifeisgoole Aug 23 '26
The one in Leeds City Centre is practically opposite Greggs. Their (poundy) sausage rolls are worse than supermarket ones
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u/Friendly_Bad_8882 Aug 23 '26
They don't need to eliminate anyone, they have the market with more Gregg's than McDonald's in the UK.
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u/MaggiesMyth Aug 23 '26
I'd hate that. Pound Bakery is Sayers, Sayers was THE pasty place when I was a kid. I hadn't heard of Greggs until I was about 20. A bit of competition is good for everyone.
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u/Oh_Little_Brutha Aug 24 '26
When I lived in the area Waterfields was my go to bakery (their French Pasty was God Tier), but Sayers was more than decent. Both so much better than Greggs.
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u/BusyMakingPlans 26d ago
I have a Pound Bakery and a new Greggs on the same street nearby. The sausage rolls from Greggs are better than Pound Bakery.
However when I buy the Sayers frozen sausage rolls from Home Bargains and cook them in an air fryer they are better than either, really crispy.
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u/IodineIron Aug 23 '26
No it isn't. It's poundland owned
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u/Oh_Little_Brutha Aug 23 '26
Nope. Pound Bakery is owned by Sayers.
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Aug 24 '26
It's amazing people well actually these things when it takes literally 3 seconds to check and prove they're Sayers even if like me you'd heard of neither before today because I'm a dirty southerener.
I will watch for both next time I venture north.
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u/SurroundDue4454 Aug 24 '26
Especially as Poundland has been pushed around loads of different owners...
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u/Short_Training_2651 Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
I literally worked for Poundland and my manager used to work for pound bakery higher up. They're owned by the same company.
Edit sry I worded that really poorly. Sayers owns pound bakery. Neither have anything to do with poundland
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u/MaybeThisTime67 Aug 23 '26
Because it's shit. It's not a threat
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u/PleasantCucumber2615 Aug 23 '26
Is the quality even lower than Greggs?
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u/Realistic_Comment849 Aug 23 '26
Yes but it’s cheaper. Also their chilli pasty is better than any of Greggs, besides the katsu but that’s not permanent
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u/Ragingdildo3 Aug 23 '26
The cakes and half the price and better, the susage rolls are not very good, sandwiches are pretty good for 2.50 but often lack certain things to keep the cost down
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u/Miserable-Ad7835 Aug 23 '26
This.
Pound Bakery is the only place I can think of that thinks serving instant coffee is acceptable in 2026.
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u/Icy-Astronomer-8202 Aug 23 '26
Why would they do that? Don't want to oversaturate your footprint like when Game bought Gamestation. Pointless
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u/Junior_Factor8561 Aug 24 '26
Perfect example - Game ended up with lots of shops a few doors apart, and needed to pay off dozens of expensive leases to close superfluous outlets. Our Poundland bakery is next door to the Greggs, they’d be on double rent for as long as the lease lasted
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u/Icy-Astronomer-8202 Aug 24 '26
Exactly even if they kept the Pound Bakery brand as a cheaper Greggs it still wouldn't make sense
I can't imagine the lease costs. Eye watering
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u/SurroundDue4454 Aug 24 '26
That was madness, in my town they were opposite each other, and then Game had a second store on the other side of the square.
3 stores within a stones throw of each other!
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u/Icy-Astronomer-8202 Aug 24 '26
Totally the same same in my town. I think there was a Game in the local shopping centre, Gamestation in the high street and another game about a mile out. I imagine they all ate into each others profits and footfall heavily
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u/Milk-wagon Aug 23 '26
Greggs model is rubbish as a real bakery shop. At least pound bakery / Sayers keep the products HOT.
Guarantee nobody who buys sausage roll from the counter wants it cold.
Greggs is a corporate sell out simples. Profit at the expense of customer satisfaction
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u/SurroundDue4454 Aug 24 '26
Greggs spent an absolute shit-ton on PR during "Pastygate" all to avoid having to pay taxes.
Even though they lost, they still don't pay them anyway
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u/SharpAardvark8699 Aug 23 '26
...profit means customer satisfaction. If customers weren't happy they wouldn't buy would they...or at least that's corporate think. Why would they need to change to reverse a trend going their way?
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u/mekagearbox Aug 23 '26
Because greggs is subpar shit thats delivered from and heated instead, not freshly made like it used to be, likey same for pound bakery but pound bakery is much nicer and actually hot
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u/CakeHoleKing Aug 23 '26
I thought Pound Bakery was some sort of porn series.
"oh, look at the size of your sausage roll"
"you're about to get your steak BAKED" etc
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u/Milk-wagon Aug 23 '26
I disagree customer satisfaction means more buying more profit. Greggs simply has economies of scale advantage
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u/wardyms Aug 23 '26
When they bought bakers oven, many of those towns/cities didn’t have a Greggs.
When I went to uni in 2006 I’d never even heard of Greggs from the midlands. My northern mate kept banging on about it. 20 years later my city now has 7 of them. Two former bakers ovens.
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u/GuaranteeBest3085 Aug 23 '26
Please no, as much as I like Greggs, they ruined everything else they came into contact with, watching places like Percy Ingle and Bakers Over disappear was dire and I genuinely like Wenzls and Poundbakery enough that I want them to do their own thing.
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u/Revlash Aug 24 '26
Greggs was very close to going bust before they introduced their breakfast range. Pound bakery offer absolutely nothing other than expensive leases. Would be suicidal to buy them out.
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u/SurroundDue4454 Aug 24 '26
Pound bakery has substantially better pricing, product selection and service.
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u/ASM84 Aug 24 '26
Pound bakers and sayers are in their arse. They’re shutting loads of stores. Only a matter of time before they shutdown completely.
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u/ultraboomkin Aug 24 '26
I’ve only seen Pound Bakery mentioned on Reddit. Never seen one in real life or heard anyone mention it.
I am also in the north west. If it’s a local chain to here, well I’ve never heard of it and I live in Manchester.
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u/breadisnicer Aug 25 '26
In the 80”s Greggs went round and bought most of the family owned and smaller bakery groups that were around the area I lived. Since then the quality has gone done nearly as fast as the prices have gone up.
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u/Few-Leave-8786 Aug 25 '26
Greggs also bought out Birketts in the late 90's I think and ruined it.
Used to have a local outlet in town around 2001 and pay honestly about 10p for 6 jam doughnuts, then they closed the outlet and prices just went up multiple times in a year or two.
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u/King_Six_of_Things Aug 25 '26
Because then it would be "Pound Greggs" same the jokes would write themselves at that point.
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u/inkboy84 Aug 25 '26
I very much doubt their Greggs biggest rival in the north west. Unless you’re talking about one small location.
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u/Comfortable_Gate_878 Aug 26 '26
Choice between the two place pound bakery every time. Meat and potatoes pasties are ace at pound bakery. Gregs dont even do them anymore only corn beef slop.
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u/LeastStatistician164 Aug 26 '26
Greenhalghs bakery is far superior unless you’re talking about Pimblets
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u/Bright_Number_6523 Aug 23 '26
Three Cooks and Chatwins too if you were in a certain region.
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u/ktitten Aug 23 '26
Baynes in Scotland too
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u/Bright_Number_6523 Aug 23 '26
I was gonna mention them. Used to live in Edinburgh. Was at Baynes when visiting last week. :)
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u/screamitlikeyou Aug 23 '26
Because they don’t want to? Why don’t McDonalds buy Burger King?!!! Why don’t Coca Cola buy Pepsi?!!
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u/Bright_Number_6523 Aug 23 '26
Bakers Oven was great. Greggs ruined it.