GAIL’s will open their first North of England bakery in the Cheshire town of Wilmslow on Thursday 16th February. The new bakery will serve GAIL’s artisan sourdough breads, pastries, sandwiches, and cakes alongside its specialty House Blend coffee.
DTZ Investors have also just signed a 10-year lease with the artisan bakery to open their first Manchester site at 16-18 King Street. GAIL’s bakery in Manchester city centre will open in spring 2023 joining other F&B brands located on the street including El Gato Negro, TAST, recently launched Franco Manca and The Parlour, which is to open this year. The unit currently houses clothing brand White Stuff who will move to a new King Street unit within DTZ Investors ownership.
GAIL’s will take over the ground, lower ground and basement space totalling 3,847 sq ft and the site will comprise a retail bakery with a large seating area, open kitchen and team training area.
Tom Royston, DTZ Investors said: “Attracting world-class brands has been a crucial part of the strategy since we took over as majority landlords at King Street. GAIL’s choosing King Street to launch their first Manchester site is testament to the calibre of brands the district is able to attract and we are really looking forward to their launch.”
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 are to also open a third bakery, on Shaw’s Road in Altrincham later in the year.
The opening of GAIL’s bakeries in the region reinforces its long-standing ties to the area following GAIL’s wholesale bakery, opened in Openshaw in 2017. It has since supplied high quality, artisan breads to some of the region’s top restaurants, café’s and hotels. The new bakeries will create new careers for people in craft baking, specialty coffee and bakery management.
GAIL’s also believes in supporting local charities in the neighbourhoods their bakeries occupy. Their bakery in Openshaw has been supporting FareShare as well as local schools, presenting and teaching students about the benefit of healthier craft bread. A newly established partnership with Manchester based EatWellMCR will allow the distribution of any surplus food to those in the region who need it most in Wilmslow and surrounding neighbourhoods.
GAIL’s is also passionate about reducing waste and sourcing sustainably. The critically acclaimed Waste Not range of bread, pantry and pastry products are produced by incorporating by-product ingredients from food making processes, like off-cuts from dough and yesterday’s bread. GAIL’s is committed to improving the end-to-end food system by selecting like-minded artisan producers who make quality ingredients that can be used in their baked goods.
A sustainable approach is also paramount in their property design. GAIL’s work with partners so new bakeries are builtsustainably, often upcycling and restoring from existing bakeries to revamp new sites.
The bakery was started by Yael (Gail) Mejia in the early 1990’s serving top chefs and food venues. In 2003, Tom Molnar and a few friends joined Yael’s premium wholesale craft bakery and grew the business organically.
Over the following six years they grew the business with top chefs and opened seven GAIL’s retail bakeries in London. With the investment by RCP in 2011, followed by the investment by Bain Capital in 2021, the team have the capabilities and knowledge to support further growth of the business, especially in retail and property. Over the past ten years the business has grown and expanded to outside London in locations from Cambridge to Oxford to recently Henley and Brentwood. It now has its sights on the north west.
GAIL’s commitment to quality has been widely acknowledged and several of their products have won prestigious awards. In 2022, GAIL’s was awarded fourteen Great Taste Awards by the Guild of Fine Foods, the most respected accreditation scheme for artisan and specialty food.
