Greggs makes 820 redundancies as new lockdowns hit business

In a statement on Greggs’ employee information website last week, Whiteside confirmed that following a consultation period the business has made 820 redundancies and warned that the bakery chain “will not be profitable as a business” if sales continue at the rates they have been in lockdown.

Whiteside said the redundancies had been due to slow trading and he went on to say that “the battle with Covid hasn’t gone away and is intensifying further” as lockdown measures continue to be increased or relaxed across different parts of the UK.

Non-essential stores are currently closed in England until at least December 2, while Wales has recently emerged from a ‘firebreak’ national lockdown.

Northern Ireland has extended its firebreak lockdown for at least another week, while Scotland has expanded its tiered system to five levels from the original three. 

Following the consultancy and redundancies, Whiteside said the focus for Greggs would be “to transition and settle into our revised internal team structures and work together to navigate our way through the uncertainty of the trading conditions that we now face”.

Whiteside also warned the Christmas trading period will be “unlike any other”, with most gifting activity moving online. As a result, he said Greggs would “need to be quick to react as new customer footfall patterns emerge and therefore plan to keep things as simple as possible whilst offering a fast and friendly service in a safe environment”.

He said Greggs would continue to focus on rolling out home delivery partnerships with Just Eat and further develop its click-and-collect offering, which he said “is continuing to grow in popularity”.