Edinburgh Greggs bakery on one of city’s busiest streets set to close permanently within weeks

A major bakery chain is set to shut one of its Edinburgh stores – just weeks after the news of another branch closure.

Greggs, which runs over 2,450 shops across the UK, is permanently closing its store on Leith Walk. No closing date has yet been announced, but a spokesperson for the bakery confirmed the news on Thursday.

Speaking to the Evening News, one worker at Greggs on Leith Walk said: “It's true the store is closing, but we’ll still be here a few weeks yet. We’ve not been given an exact closing date, but it’s expected to be at the end of this month or the start of May.”

It comes after it was announced that Greggs is closing its Ocean Terminal branch, due to a major redevelopment of the shopping mall.

The food-to-go giant is expected to shut the shop in May to make way for a disabled toilet for Level X, the gaming and leisure venue which is due to open this year.

Greggs has been approached for comment over the closure of the Leith Walk store.

In January, Greggs revealed plans to open up many more stores in the year ahead and cheered a strong end to 2023.

The group opened a record 220 new shops over 2023, with 33 closures and 42 relocations leaving it with 145 new sites on a net basis and taking its total estate to 2,473.

Greggs is set to open between 140 and 160 new shops on a net basis in 2024 as it looks to give customers more convenient access to its stores. It will continue to look at expanding across retail parks, travel sites and roadside locations, as well as industrial estates.

“Where there’s any location where you can’t currently access a Greggs easily, we want to try and get into that location,” said Roisin Currie, chief executive of Greggs.