GAIL’s accelerates North West expansion
The bakery is set to open its doors on King Street in Manchester next Wednesday with another store on its way in Didsbury later this month, following its venture into Wilmslow and Altrincham in February and March, respectively.
GAIL’s, which is owned by private equity company Bain Capital, offers customers treats such as sourdough bread, pastries, sandwiches, and cakes, as well as its own house-blend coffee.
The company has signed a 10-year lease with property owner DTZ Investors to open the 4,100 sq ft Manchester city centre outlet.
Spread across three floors, the King Street building was formerly occupied by fashion retailer White Stuff.
Lyon Thompson Letts and Orme were the leasing agents on the deal.
The cost of GAIL’s rent was undisclosed, but the agents had been marketing the property for a £95,000 per year price tag
Gareth Storer at Four & Co acted on behalf of GAIL’s.
A spokesperson for GAIL’s said: “We are pleased GAIL’s will be opening on Manchester’s famous King Street.
“Our team spent a lot of time in Manchester finding the right location for the bakery.
“As a neighbourhood craft bakery, we offer our customers freshly baked food, which is baked on-site each day, and hand-roasted speciality-grade coffee, and we can’t wait to bring our food and passion to Manchester this year.”
GAIL’s is also expanding into Didsbury later this month, where the company will take over the former HSBC bank on Wilmslow Road to open a 2,900 sq ft outlet.
Both new stores will be GAIL’s third and fourth in the North West, having opened stores on Water Lane in Wilmslow and Shaw Road in Altrincham earlier this year.
This expansion into the region reflects the company’s ties to the area, following the opening of GAIL’s wholesale bakery in Openshaw in 2017.
The company has 100 stores in total, mostly across the South.
They must be making some dough selling bread to open a store on king street! Good luck to them.
By Baker man
Selling butties on King Street?
By BreadHead
King St, Wilmslow and Altrincham, definitely not competing with Greggs!
By Anonymous
This is great news. The lack of bakeries in MCR is astounding (and no, I don’t consider Greggs a bakery. If a bakery doesn’t sell bread, it’s not a bakery – Greggs is a takeaway that sells pre-headed pastry bakes and plastic wrapped sandwiches).
All that said, I hope Gails also add Prestwich. Didsbury is a logical place for artisan bakeries, but there are already a number of them, what with La Chouquette & Bisous Bisous at the Village already. Prestwich is competing quite well with Didsbury on the restaurant and bar front, but lacks any delis or bakeries, with no butcher, cheese monger, fish monger either.
By Jo
King Street is a ghost town nowadays, it used to be bustling
By Gilly
Isn’t Gordon Ramsay’s Lucky Cat opening soon on King St? That’s an eclectic mix of posh nosheries opening around there. Wish I could afford them!
By Tom
King St is a ghost town?!
Is there a different King St I don’t know about? Let me know so I can attempt to cycle down that one instead!
Why are there so many odd balls pretending Manchester is dead? It just highlights how desperate and jealous people are of a vibrant city.
By Bless you
They need one in lytham or go in waitrose walton le dale
By Anonymous
Artisan it may be, but these are cafes not bakeries, their bread and cakes are made in industrial units in Hendon and Openshaw – see The Bread Factory.
By Anonymous
I don’t think Gilly has been to Mcr for some time
By Dave
So overated – mediocre products with a hefty price tag and people who know good food see that. ‘Neighbourhood craft’ and ‘baked on site’ = shipped in frozen from the Bread Factory and baked off. Wilmslow seems to be doing alright with no other bakery in direct competition, but the word is Altrincham hasn’t done so well in the face of stiff local competition in a town that prefers indies. May be the same story in Didsbury.
By Anonymous
Better remortgage before I pop in for a loaf
By Levelling Up Manager
Liverpool and Chester could both support this brand. It would do well in the Ribble Valley too, which is rich and renowned for great eateries. I think Ancoats should be the second Central Manchester shop, with the expansion of the Rochdale Road area and the massive swell in population for Victoria North and Piccadilly East, it would fit in around there seamlessly.
By Elephant
Sounds like there’s plenty of demand if they can afford king sr rates! Good on them, Greggs…market st only thankfully, bit too low rent for this end of town.
By Anonymous
I wish them luck in Manchester although I imagine there will be a hefty price tag on products. Didsbury however already has some fabulous independent bakeries which I really hope will not be affected by this chain. I certainly will not be visiting.
By Support Independents
I have been in the Wilmslow, branch a couple of times now and I must say that I’m not impressed so far. First time I had a coffee and a what should have been a simple sausage toll, which it was not. They had put their own twist on it and I think it turned out a bit of let down, they had messed with the concept to much I feel. The second time I bought some sourdough bread to try at home. Again I was not impressed, as I love sourdough normally. This sample was over baked and almost burnt and I know the crust is meant to be hard, but this almost needed power tools to cut. However, it’s early days yet and things may settle down as I did like the set up and layout as a whole.
By Anthony Ward