Greggs ‘working hard’ to stop investors betting against Britain’s most-shorted stock
Battling to convince investors to stop shorting her bakery chain, Greggs boss Roisin Currie insisted “evolution” away from the steak bake purveyor’s key offering is the path to ever higher growth.
But it is this rampant expansion which has spooked enough investors to bet against Greggs, making it the most shorted company in the UK, with current short interest above 14 per cent.
Shares in the company fell by seven per cent in one day in January after a shaky market update, with the share value down more than 20 per cent over the last year.
Investors fear the market may have already reached “peak Greggs” as the chain’s aggressive store rollout continues apace, according to Garry White, chief investment commentator at Charles Stanley.
The chain oversaw a net increase of 121 stores last year and plans on opening another 120 in the coming year, and insists its new bakeries do not eat away at the margins of its existing locations nearby.
Peak Greggs?
Addressing the market hostility to Greggs while announcing the retailer’s financial results, Currie told journalists the key to calming fears of unsustainably quick growth is by going even faster.
Currie said: “We need to make sure we continue to demonstrate how we innovate and rapidly evolve our menu and the products that we offer.
“Some great recent examples of that […] would be the fact we leaned into iced drinks in 2025 and in 2026 we brought matcha to the market at a very affordable price.”
Greggs’ trumpeting of its matcha and iced coffee products as proof of the brand’s stability have raised eyebrows among analysts, who fear the sausage roll vendor is straying from its core brand.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said Greggs’ insistence on further expansion “will either turn out to be a brilliant long-term move, or an imprudent decision from a business facing threats on multiple fronts”.
Currie accepted that, given Greggs’ weak position as the FTSE’s most shorted firm, it is the company’s responsibility to regain the trust of investors. She said: “We will continue to work hard to try and share our confidence with everyone else out there, and make sure that we provide the data points that demonstrate the great progress we’re making.”
Greggs boss: youth unemployment a concern
Retailers have been hit by rising employment costs in recent months and are now being forced to adapt to Labour’s new workers’ rights reforms, which trade bodies have warned could force bosses to cut down on hiring.
Retail bosses have also sounded the alarm over youth unemployment, as the number of young people not in education, employment or training nears one million.
Currie said: “[Greggs is] trying to make sure that we find a way to support more young people into the workplace, because that is key to the success of a future growing economy.”
Greggs’ profit fell by nine per cent to £171.9m in the year to December 2025 though total sales were up seven per cent. Shares in the chain held steady on Tuesday, having climbed by just under one per cent following the financial results.