Gail's shareholders hire Goldman Sachs to run auction of bakery chain

Gail's shareholders have hired Goldman Sachs to run an auction of the bakery chain after it sparked a gentrification row.

Gail's parent company, Bread Holdings, appointed the wall street bank 'in recent days' to oversee a sale next year, according to Sky News.

The business is part-owned by entrepreneur Brexiteer Luke Johnson who has been heavily critical of the Covid lockdowns and Net Zero 'stupidity'. 

The move will allow the company's current backers to make a partial or full exit from the business, sources told Sky.

Analysts anticipate Gail's could be worth as much as £500m, which is a significant increase in windfall for the company that was valued at £200m in 2021. 

At the time, Gail's had just over 70 bakeries in the UK. Now it has more than 130 and is seen by many as the successor to Waitrose. 

It opened in 2005 in Hampstead, north London, and slowly began to spread across the capital before cherry picking new towns and cities to set up in. 

The bakery chain became embroiled in a gentrification row earlier this year over its plans to open a new site in Walthamstow Village. 

A number of locals came out against the move and started a petition to stop the shop from opening. 

The organiser of the petition, James Harvey, argued that if the brand opened, then local alternatives would be forced to close and the village would lose its character. 

Addressing the row at the time, Gail's founder Tom Molnar told The Times: 'We build small sites so they are a part of a diverse high street, so whenever I build a Gail's I think what it would be like if I was a resident here.

'I'd encourage people to look at what we're trying to do, rather than taglines.

'There's good independents and bad, and good chains and bad chains.'

The company sparked controversy again earlier this month after announcing plans to open a new branch in Primrose Hill. 

Locals claim its picturesque shopping hub could soon be 'steamrollered' by plans to open a new branch of upmarket bakery store. 

Community campaigner Phil Cowan claimed it 'represent[ed] yet another rung on the ladder towards identikit retail environments'.

Mr Cowan told the Camden New Journal: 'The proposed store will represent yet another rung on the ladder towards identikit retail environments, which is both sad and ironic considering that people so enthusiastically celebrate Primrose Hill just as it is – a proudly independent village.'

Primrose Hill was made famous in the 1990s by party-loving celebrities such as rock stars Noel and Liam Gallagher, model Kate Moss, actor Jude Law and actress Sadie Frost - who were regularly photographed together drinking and smoking at the time.

It is still known to be a neighbourhood full of famous faces, housing stars such as Daisy Lowe, Matt Smith, Lily James, Douglas Booth and Claire Foy.

Despite plans to open other shops in London, managers at Gail's do not consider themselves a chain.

In an interview with trade publication British Baker, Marta Pogroszewska said she believed 'scale' was an uncomfortable term and the company will always focus on being a 'neighbourhood bakery' rather than a chain.