VS Series
Greggs v Gail's
The sausage roll against the sourdough loaf
Greggs leads on 3 of the five measures that matter most: turnover, pre-tax profit, profit margin, growth and net assets. Greggs is the biggest by turnover at £2,014m, against £220m at Gail's. Gail's keeps more of every £100 it takes, £13.41 as pre-tax profit.
The year ends are close enough to compare like for like.
Accounts compared: Greggs to Dec 2024 · Gail's to Feb 2025
Who they are
Greggs
Greggs PLC · 00502851Greggs is a bakery chain selling sausage rolls, bakes, sandwiches and coffee to eat on the go.In brief: bakery and food-to-go retailer · makes its own products · company-run and franchised shops · listedFull profile →Gail's
Gails Limited · 06055393Gail's is a bakery chain selling fresh bread, pastries, cakes and speciality coffee from its own neighbourhood bakeries.In brief: bakery chain · bread, pastries and coffee · own bakeriesFull profile →How they differ
How do Greggs and Gail's make their money differently?
Greggs makes its own food and sells it cheaply through 2,739 shops, franchise partners and delivery. Gail's runs neighbourhood bakeries and grows by opening more of them: 22 in its latest year, lifting sales 23%.
How they make it
Makes its own food in its own manufacturing centres and delivers it to the shops itself. About 1 in 9 staff work in production.
“which helps us to keep our prices as low as possible”
Greggs pp. 3, 148Pays for premium ingredients. The accounts don't say where it bakes: about 24 in 25 staff are listed as retail, with no production category.
“to continue to pay premium prices for premium ingredients”
Gail's pp. 3, 14How they sell it
Value prices through its own shops, over 600 franchised shops, grocery partners and delivery. Sales to franchise and grocery partners were 11.8% of revenue.
“at a strong discount compared to other food-to-go specialists”
Greggs pp. 3, 58, 145Its own neighbourhood bakeries only: all revenue is from sales to customers in-store, in the UK.
“attractive neighbourhood bakeries with the highest levels of service at reasonable prices”
Gail's pp. 3, 10, 13How they grow
More shops, in new kinds of site: over half of 2025's openings were at forecourts, supermarkets, retail parks and hospitals. About a third of 2026's openings will be franchised.
“a network of 3,500 shops”
Greggs pp. 16, 25, 58New high-street bakeries: 22 opened in the year. The directors name finding sites as a risk.
“Acquiring suitable locations for new retail bakeries is more challenging”
Gail's p. 3Where the money goes
Supply capacity: £287.5m of capital spending in 2025, on new National Distribution Centres in Derby and Kettering.
“the peak year”
Greggs p. 60Fitting out bakeries: £15.0m of its £25.5m of new assets was property improvements. Funding comes from its parent group.
“funded by a combination of available cash balances, external bank loan funding and Preference shares”
Gail's pp. 10, 17Not disclosed
The size of its franchised estate, beyond "over 600" shops.
Greggs p. 3Audit-exempt subsidiary accounts: no bakery count, like-for-like sales, sales by channel or where it bakes.
Gail's p. 6Gross margins and lease figures are not comparable: Greggs reports shop costs within distribution and selling costs and uses IFRS 16; Gail's does not define its cost of sales and uses FRS 102. The scorecard uses Greggs' accounts to December 2024; this panel uses its 2025 report.
Sources: Greggs plc, Annual Report and Accounts 2025; Gails Limited (06055393), accounts to 28 February 2025. Page numbers are the documents' own.
The Numbers
| # | Company | Turnover | Change | Pre-tax profit | Margin | Employees | Pay per head | Turnover per head | Net assets | Bank and cash | Accounts to | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GreggsGreggs PLC | £2,014m | +11.3% | £204m | 10.1% | 32,258 | £21,000 | £62,000 | £571m | £125m | Dec 2024 | n/d |
| 2 | Gail'sGails Limited | £220m | +22.8% | £29m | 13.4% | 2,816 | £24,000 | £78,000 | £84m | £3m | Feb 2025 | Single company |
Ranked by turnover. Click any column to sort. The leader on each measure is highlighted. Movements are against each company's own prior year. Pre-tax profit is filed except where marked (est.).
Category winners
The Takeaway
- Gail's converts the most of its turnover. Of every £100, £13.41 reaches pre-tax profit, against £10.12 at Greggs.
- Greggs is the largest on the top line, £2,014m of turnover, 9.2x Gail's's £220m.
- Gail's is growing fastest, turnover +22.8% on its own prior year.
- Greggs is the biggest employer with 32,258 people; Gail's pays the most per head, an average staff cost of about £24,000.
- Greggs has the largest balance sheet, net assets of £571m.
Who keeps the most of every £100 of sales?
Gail's keeps the most: £13.41 of every £100 of turnover becomes pre-tax profit. Greggs keeps the least, £10.12.
Every profit figure here is the one the company filed.
The chart splits each company's turnover into £100: what goes on people, on interest and on everything else, and what is left as profit.
Out of every £100 of turnover
Each column is £100 of that company's own turnover, so companies of any size compare on one scale; the figures are pounds out of each £100, not millions. Companies run from the best margin to the worst. Payroll is staff costs, financing is interest paid, other running costs are everything else, and profit is pre-tax profit, filed or estimated as marked in the table. A loss is not an extra cost: it is the part of the costs that runs past the £100 line, marked with a red bracket. Hover over any segment for its figure.
Who is the biggest, and does the comparison hold?
By turnover the order is Greggs (£2,014m), Gail's (£220m).
By headcount, Greggs leads with 32,258 employees.
The accounting periods all end within 2 months of each other. All are on the same filing basis.
Turnover on the latest filing
Who is growing fastest?
Gail's grew fastest, turnover +22.8% on its own prior year, ahead of Greggs (+11.3%).
Turnover change on each company's own prior year
Who employs the most, who pays the most, and who brings in the most per head?
Greggs employs the most, 32,258 people, against 2,816 at Gail's.
Gail's has the highest average staff cost, about £24,000 a head; Greggs the lowest, about £21,000.
Gail's brings in the most turnover per employee, about £78,000, against £62,000 at Greggs. It says as much about the business model as the workforce: a marketplace or a wholesaler needs far fewer people per pound than a restaurant or a gym.
Who owns each one?
Ownership as recorded on the Companies House register of people with significant control, in the bands the register uses.
Owned by its shareholders
Listed on the London Stock Exchange, so no single controller appears on the register. 1 outstanding charge on the register.
Who owns Greggs →
Gails Limited · 06055393Held by Bread Limited
A company recorded as a person with significant control. 2 outstanding charges on the register.
Who owns Gail's →
What does the full ledger show?
| Measure | Greggs | Gail's |
|---|---|---|
| Registered name | GREGGS PLC | GAILS LIMITED |
| Company number | 00502851 | 06055393 |
| Incorporated | 1951 | 2007 |
| Accounts filed | 30 June 2025 | 9 December 2025 |
| Turnover, prior year | £1,810m | £179m |
| Pre-tax profit, prior year | £188m | £25m |
| Staff costs | £687m | £67m |
| Payroll share of turnover | 34.1% | 30.3% |
| Employees, prior year | 30,085 | 2,454 |
| Dividends paid | £107m | n/d |
| Charges outstanding | 1 | 2 |
A figure the filing does not disclose is shown as n/d; a zero in a filing is treated as not disclosed. Rounding: below £0.1m in thousands, £0.1m to £2m to one decimal place, above that to the nearest million.
Greggs v Gail's: common questions
How do Greggs and Gail's make their money differently?
Greggs is a value food-on-the-go chain that makes and delivers its own products to 2,739 shops, over 600 of them franchised, and in 2025 took 11.8% of its revenue from selling to franchise and grocery partners (Greggs AR, pp. 3, 145, 174). Gail's is a neighbourhood bakery chain whose accounts describe only in-store retail sales; its turnover grew 23% in the year to 28 February 2025, "largely attributable to the growth in the estate" of 22 new bakeries (Gail's accounts, pp. 3, 10). Staff costs took £35.16 of every £100 of Greggs' 2025 sales and £30.31 at Gail's (our arithmetic).
Who is the biggest of Greggs or Gail's?
Greggs, with turnover of £2,014m in the year to December 2024.
Which makes the most profit?
Greggs: £204m pre-tax in the year to December 2024.
Which employs the most people?
Greggs, with 32,258 employees in its latest accounts.
Greggs or Gail's: which is bigger?
Greggs, with turnover of £2,014m against £220m at Gail's on their latest filings. On margin, Gail's keeps more of each £100 as pre-tax profit. The full head to head is in the VS Series. Read the VS page →
Where do these figures come from?
Each company's latest accounts filed at Companies House. Each links to its full Spark Intel profile, which names the filing it comes from.
Deep dive: what story does Greggs's money tell? →
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