The nation’s ever-growing love of sourdough helped spur a £25.1m sales leap at Geary’s Bakeries last year, predominantly via its wrapped loaf brand Jason’s Sourdough.
In newly filed accounts to Companies House for the year ended 27 December 2024, the Leicester-based manufacturer reported a 37.5% increase in turnover, up from £66.8m in FY23 to £91.8m.
Sales of Jason’s Sourdough – the inaugural winner of Bakery Brand of the Year in 2024 – grew 122% to add £17.1m on the prior year, marking a further acceleration of the 115% growth it recorded in 2023.
The business said this was the result of some exciting product launches during the period, among them a high protein loaf and a range of premium toasties and hot rolls produced in partnership with food-to-go specialist Around Noon. Geary’s noted the NPD helped make more consumers aware of its offering and increased its store distribution, whilst contributing to its overall goal of “making proper bread more accessible to more people”.
Jason’s Sourdough was now the market leading sourdough brand in the UK, it added, with continual increase in market penetration and frequency of purchases. A British Baker report back in May noted how it had risen to fourth in the UK’s biggest bread brand rankings, and was closing the gap on Kingsmill in third. Geary’s pointed to Kantar Worldpanel data for pre-packed bread sales during the 52 weeks ending 29 December 2024, which had retail spend on Jason’s Sourdough standing at £36.9m, up from £17.3m in the previous 12 months.
The continued expansion of the sourdough category – as discussed in our recent trends report – had resulted in significant growth of Geary’s private label business as well.
Growth margin at the firm improved from 28% to 32% in 2024, with its bakeries operating close to full capacity throughout the second half of the year. This created economies of scale with it also continuing to benefit from automation invested in through 2023. Operating profit jumped 73.1% to £15.5m, while profit after tax went from £7.6m in 2023 to £11.8m.
Geary’s admitted the first half of 2025 has been challenging with incremental sales week on week significantly limited by a lack of capacity. In May, it opened a new £36m bakery over the road from its existing site in Glenfield with a first plant helping double production of selected Jason’s Sourdough lines – a second plant came online this month.
“The new Glenfield 2 facility will enable us to continue to grow and expand the Jason’s Sourdough brand for the foreseeable future but the company is already looking at options for future expansion,” revealed fourth-generation master baker Jason Geary.
The Jason’s Sourdough range has been extended repeatedly in recent months, including new flavoured loaves and protein rolls, unsliced boules, and even an entry into the crumpet category. Just a couple of weeks back, it launched a multi-million-pound campaign featuring its first TV ad starring Geary.
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