It’s hard to think of a retailer that has become more of a British cultural icon than Greggs.
In 2025, Greggs was named the UK’s 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 – 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 £2.15bn on the back of 207 new shop openings.
However, the company described market conditions as ‘challenging’ 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 ‘no doubt’ that the surge in weight loss jabs had led to the public looking for smaller portions.
It arguably represents Currie’s biggest challenge since becoming the company’s first female CEO in 2022.
She was included in BusinessCloud’s 2025 Northern Leaders list and spoke at an exclusive event in Newcastle alongside Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies and Moja founder Sophie Milliken.
Currie’s 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.
“We didn’t have a lot of money so we didn’t go on holidays abroad and things like that,” she told the Northern Leaders event.
“I 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.
“When 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
“I didn’t go to the Student Union a lot. I didn’t get to socialise. But I never look back and regret that, because I developed skills around that hard work – and actually, I couldn’t spend it because I had another shift!
“It didn’t make me feel tired. It actually gave me energy! And it inspired me to want to go into business.”
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 giant around.
She joined Greggs in 2010 and made history in 2022 when she became the first woman in the company’s 85-year history to be appointed CEO.
She’s 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.
“It’s an absolute privilege to run the business, and it does feel like a privilege every day,” she told BusinessCloud.
“How do we keep things fresh? We try and keep our people really engaged. And as a result, they constantly come up with new ideas – such as new products.
“The best ideas come from our teams. I spend a lot of time out in our shops and out in our bakeries, because that’s where the hard work happens.”
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: “We made good progress in 2025, in a challenging year where subdued consumer confidence impacted the food-to-go market.
“Against 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.
“This is underpinned by the investments we have been making in our supply chain capacity, which start to become operational this year.
“Our 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.