It鈥檚 hard to think of a retailer that has become more of a British cultural icon than Greggs.
In 2025, Greggs was named the UK鈥檚 strongest brand and even had one of its iconic sausage rolls unveiled at Madame Tussauds.
The bakery giant has continued to make headlines at the start of 2026 鈥� but for very different reasons.
On January 8th, Greggs provided a trading update for Q4, which showed total sales in 2025 were up 6.8 per cent to 拢2.15bn on the back of 207 new shop openings.
However, the company described market conditions as 鈥榗hallenging鈥� and has seen its share price fall by a quarter in the last 12 months.
Weight loss jabs
Chief executive Roisin Currie made headlines when she said there was 鈥榥o doubt鈥� that the surge in weight loss jabs had led to the public looking for smaller portions.
It arguably represents Currie鈥檚 biggest challenge since becoming the company鈥檚 first female CEO in 2022.
She was included in 老九品茶Cloud鈥檚 2025 Northern Leaders list and spoke at an exclusive event in Newcastle alongside Dragons鈥� Den star Sara Davies and Moja founder Sophie Milliken.
Currie鈥檚 formative years were spent in her native Scotland.
Born in Glasgow, she attended Our Lady and St Francis Secondary School before going to the University of Strathclyde.
At the age of 15 she started her retail career by working in a shoe shop at weekends and a couple of evenings a week at Asda.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have a lot of money so we didn鈥檛 go on holidays abroad and things like that,鈥� she told the Northern Leaders event.
鈥淚 knew that if I wanted to have money to spend myself, I needed to earn it. So I worked in a shoe shop on a Saturday and did Asda two nights a week.
鈥淲hen I became old enough, I did a day in the bookies too. And then, when I went to university, I was really lucky because there was a local GP that needed somebody to do his filing just one bus ride away.
Hard work
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 go to the Student Union a lot. I didn鈥檛 get to socialise. But I never look back and regret that, because I developed skills around that hard work 鈥� and actually, I couldn鈥檛 spend it because I had another shift!
鈥淚t didn鈥檛 make me feel tired. It actually gave me energy! And it inspired me to want to go into business.鈥�
Currie spent 20 years at Asda, rising up through the ranks, working under the likes of Archie Norman and Allan Leighton, who were credited with turning the fortunes of the supermarket聽 giant around.
She joined Greggs in 2010 and made history in 2022 when she became the first woman in the company鈥檚 85-year history to be appointed CEO.
She鈥檚 been widely credited with driving the growth of Greggs but her success has been matched by her reputation for being humble.
When she was awarded The Grocer Cup at the 2024 Grocer Gold Awards she gave the credit to her colleagues and asked for the presentation to be done in a Greggs store.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an absolute privilege to run the business, and it does feel like a privilege every day,鈥� she told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淗ow do we keep things fresh? We try and keep our people really engaged. And as a result, they constantly come up with new ideas 鈥� such as new products.
鈥淭he best ideas come from our teams. I spend a lot of time out in our shops and out in our bakeries, because that鈥檚 where the hard work happens.鈥�
Last year, the mother-of-three was awarded a CBE in recognition of her exceptional contributions to the hospitality industry.
On track
Despite the challenging market conditions, Currie insists Greggs is on track for continued growth.
In her statement to the Stock Exchange last week, she said: 鈥淲e made good progress in 2025, in a challenging year where subdued consumer confidence impacted the food-to-go market.
鈥淎gainst this backdrop, I’m pleased that Greggs outperformed the wider market and increased its market share of visits.
“We enter 2026 with a strong pipeline of new opportunities to make Greggs even more convenient for customers.
鈥淭his is underpinned by the investments we have been making in our supply chain capacity, which start to become operational this year.
鈥淥ur ongoing focus on efficiency allows us to deliver exceptional value to customers who are managing their budgets carefully.”
Greggs expect to report their 2025 preliminary results on March 3rd, 2026.