A tale of two bakers

Tom White’s excellent piece on the rapid growth and success of Greggs could be used to compare and contrast with a piece of bad news for those of us here in Yorkshire used to getting our lunchtime nibbles from Ainsley’s…

Around 300 jobs are now at risk after 29-store Yorkshire bakery chain Ainsleys went into administration last week. Ainsleys management blamed rising ingredient prices, energy costs and “severe competition” on the High Street (there’s the neat link to Greggs). To that list, management might have added (in my experience of shopping there for the last 20 years):

- Grumpy customer service
- High prices and poor value for money
- A boring product range
- Dreadful soup
- Lack of innovation

Ainsleys is supplied by its own bakery in the Sheepscar area of Leeds, and employs 263 full and part-time workers and a further 30 temporary staff. Ainsleys’ announcement comes less than three weeks after Greggs revealed plans to open 60 new branches in Yorkshire as part of a major nationwide expansion programme. Perhaps Greggs are the obvious buyers for Ainsley’s outlets, though there would have to be some rationalisation, as several are right next to each other.

A bit more background on the Ainsley’s business failure here