Gail’s creates international role as UK expansion nears maturity

Gail’s has moved to formalize its next growth phase with a new International Managing Director role, a clear sign that the bakery-café chain is starting to look beyond the UK market that made it a premium staple. The company is approaching 200 outlets at home, and the appointment suggests Gail’s wants to test whether its bakery, coffee and neighborhood-led format can travel before it pushes further.

That matters because Gail’s was built on a very specific identity. Gail Mejia founded the business in the early 1990s as a wholesale bakery in London, and the first retail Gail’s opened on Hampstead High Street in 2005. The Bread Factory, its wholesale arm, still supplies top restaurants and discerning customers, while the retail brand has spread across neighborhoods in and around London, as well as Oxford and Brighton. International growth will likely depend less on whether Gail’s can open more shops and more on whether that same bakery-café experience, from design to pastry-and-coffee ritual, can work in another market.

Harry Goss has been appointed to lead that effort. Goss was formerly a partner and head of foodservice at McWin Capital Partners, which has backed Gail’s since 2021, and he has sat on the company’s board since November 2022. His earlier career included investment banking at Lehman Brothers and Nomura, where he finished as managing director and head of leisure and hospitality for EMEA. The move puts a board-connected executive with both foodservice investment and hospitality operating experience in charge of evaluating opportunities abroad.

The timing reflects a business that is still expanding aggressively in the UK. Gail’s reported around 160 stores in January 2025, and by June 2026 it was approaching 200 outlets. The company’s latest full-year accounts showed revenue of £219.8 million for the year to 28 February 2025, with adjusted group EBITDA of £53.6 million. Gail’s was also on track to open 40 new locations in its current financial period and has a stated target of 300 UK shops.

That domestic momentum gives Gail’s room to think internationally from a position of strength rather than pressure. The hard part now is not building another cluster of UK cafés, but proving that a premium, community-oriented bakery brand can keep its character when the estate, the supply chain and the labor market stop looking familiar.