Greggs workers “cannot be dropped like stones”, union warns as bakery giant plans factory closures

Greggs is planning to close four of its factories, putting hundreds of manufacturing jobs at risk at a time when the high street bakery chain says business has never been better.

In early October, the company announced that it wants to shut manufacturing sites at North Lakes near Penrith in Cumbria, Pettigrews in Kelso in the Scottish Borders, Seaham in County Durham and Enfield in north London. Distribution would continue from Enfield. Greggs puts the job losses at around 740.

The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU), which has a long-standing recognition agreement with Greggs, has vowed to fight the plans through the consultation now under way.

General secretary Sarah Woolley said the union was “deeply concerned” by an announcement that put hundreds of workers and their livelihoods at risk. “Our immediate priority is our members, their jobs, their families and the communities that could be affected by these proposals,” she said.

Booming business

The union’s case rests on Greggs’ own numbers. The company says more customers than ever are choosing Greggs and that it is investing heavily in growth. Its shop estate has grown from just over 2,100 in 2021 to almost 2,800 today. According to the union, it recently paid £90m to shareholders.

Against that backdrop, Woolley said, members would understandably be asking why their jobs should now be sacrificed in the name of efficiency. Factory staff had worked through huge changes, rising demand and restructuring. They had made the food, packed the products and kept the operation moving while the business expanded. “They cannot simply be dropped like stones as the company moves on to its next phase of growth,” she said.

Greggs chief executive Roisin Currie said the company needed to “keep evolving alongside changing customer expectations”. The proposals, she said, were intended to “strengthen our manufacturing network, improve efficiency and ensure we remain well placed for the future”.

Greggs says no final decisions have been made. It wants to consolidate production into six sites, including a new facility in Derby, with the changes phased in over two and a half years. Derby is expected to bring around 600 jobs, but Currie has conceded the new sites are a long way from the factories earmarked for closure.

Not numbers on a spreadsheet

The BFAWU says it will scrutinise the business case in full, challenge it where necessary and push every alternative to compulsory redundancies and closures. That means fighting to keep work at the affected sites, pressing for redeployment and retraining, and questioning any move to shift work elsewhere or buy in products from outside suppliers.

The closures would hit hardest in towns where the factories are major employers. Pettigrews has been part of Kelso since 1968. Seaham, a former pit town on the Durham coast, has spent decades rebuilding after the collieries closed.

“For the communities affected, these are not simply numbers on a spreadsheet,” said Woolley. “These are people with mortgages and rents to pay, families to support and years – in many cases decades – of service to Greggs.”

Growth and investment, she argued, should bring greater security to the workforce that helped create it – not leave workers wondering whether they still have a future in the business. Her message to members was simple: “You are not facing this alone. Your union will stand alongside you, and we will fight.”

Take action

Readers can back Greggs workers by writing to Greggs chief executive Roisin Currie and demanding an end to the threatened redundancies.